2. The week after the test…
Formative test pair reflection:
– What in particular did you find difficult about the test?
– What did you find easier?
– What advice would you give someone about to do the
test?
– What changes are you going to make to your study habits
in:
• Lectures
• Seminars
• Reading
• Revision
Let’s start with a video…
• Films as maintenance of discourses
3. Research question
• What evidence is there for Weber’s theory of
rationalisation?
– What are the main arguments of The Protestant Ethic
and the Spirit of Capitalism?
– What is the rationality principle?
– What is disenchantment?
– What did Weber argue would happen to human
creativity?
– To what extent has secularism taken place?
– To what extent has disenchantment taken place?
– What could the future hold?
4. The Disneyization
of Society (2004)
• Extension of
Rationalization (Weber)
McDonaldization (Ritzer)
• Non-human
technology
• Efficiency
• Calculability
• Predictability
5. Disneyisation (Bryman, 2004)
• Extension of Rationalization (Weber) and McDonaldization
(Ritzer)
• Disneyisation:
– ‘the process by which the principles of the Disney theme
parks are coming to dominate more and more sectors of
American society as well as the rest of the world’ (2004:12)
– four principles that help shape contemporary consumption:
• Theming
• Hybrid consumption
• Merchandising
• Performative labour
• Four groups
• What evidence is there for Weber’s theory of
rationalisation?
5
6. • Theming
– What is theming?
– What examples of themed restaurants does Bryman provide?
– What different themes are there in the the Disney amusement parks?
• Dedifferentiation of consumption
– What is dedifferentiation?
– What examples of representations of different nations are there in the
World Showcase?
– What examples of dedifferentiation of consumption are there in Las
Vegas?
• Merchandising
– What happened in 1929?
– Why were the characters designed to be cute?
– What examples of merchandise are there in the text?
• Emotional labour
– What happens at the Disney University?
– What do Disney employees look like and behave like?
– What are the emotional requirements of working at Disney?
• Can you find examples of all of these throughout societies
throughout the world?
7. Disneyisation (Bryman, 2004)
• What are the main points for each paragraph?
• Which examples does Bryman give?
• What similarities can you find between:
– Weber
– Ritzer
– Bryman
• Can you think of other examples which show the spread
of your principle?
• How does this develop Weber’s thesis?
• To what extent is Bryman’s work a description of the
processes in contemporary society?
• What positions of resistance are there?
7
8. Connections
• Historical materialism
• Power of human thought and belief vs rationalisation and
bureacracy
• How do these theories sit now within the context of
globalisation?
• Disneyfication:
– Performative labour – symbolic interactionism (Hoschild; Mead)
• Disney:
– Fairy tales and gender roles
– Global commodity chains
– Development studies
Let’s finish with a video…
• Films as maintenance of discourses
