GS101

Glocommodification

Week 7

-McDonalds opened its first outlet in Israel in 1993. Since then, it has been involved in a variety of
symbolic encounters
Global Commerce Encounters the Local Eating Habitus: McDonalds and the Falafel
-It took the advent of McDonalds however, for the great gluttony of the fast hamburger to begin
-McDonalds opened in October 1993 and BK followed it a year later. It took from McDonalds arrival to
2000 for the sales in the hamburger industry to increase by 600%
-There is now a total of 250 burger branches in place in Israel
-Developments that are carried over from the West, transform familiar family lifestyles
-Technological advancements and business interests have set the stage for changes in Israeli eating
habits
-The falafel used to be a signature dish in Israel but it fell in the 1970s and 1980s because of fast food
places like Shawarma, pizza, and hamburger stands
-The falafel came back in two forms: gourmet, and fast-food
-The falafel has simultaneously undergone McDonaldized standardization
-Falafel is healthy foods and they have taken it further with whole-wheat pita bread
-The interrelations of McDonalds and the falafel are not simply a contrast between local decline and
global rise. Rather, they are a complex mix, though certainly under the banner of the global. In the
process, the global also transformed the nature and meaning of the local. The local in turn, caused a
slight modification in the taste and size of the global while leaving its basic institutional patterns and
organizational practices intact.
Discussion I: One-Way or Two-Way?
-George Ritzer is responsible for the term that describes eh social process of McDonaldization
-There is a variety of dished that McDonalds has included on its menu to accommodate various local
cultures
-The one-way approach is the former; cultural imperialism and McDonaldization
-The two-way approach to the global=local encounter is usually portrayed as critical and empoused by
radical social scientists, because it empowers the sustainability of local cultures and fosters local
identities.
Discussion II: Both Ways
-Resolutions :
-both perspectives are valid
-yet they apply to discrete societal levels
-the one-way approach if restricted to one level of social reality
-a global local structural-symbolic model, in which the two processes of homogenization and
heterogenization are combined
-transnational corporations are quick to take advantage of multiculturalism, postcolonialism and
ethnography, and exploit genuine cultural concerns to their benefit
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