From the U. S. videos and television, some scenarios are often offered in the big screen that individuals trot all the way to work, eating and operating. What they have because of their lunch time break is usually fast food like burgers, French fries, donuts, sandwiches, sodas, etc. Fast food is actually on-the-go food, quickly made, and offered within minutes for the people who lead fast-paced lives.
The phrase "Fast food" originated from McDonald's in the 1950s. The introduction of American junk food sets off a late-model culture-- so called fast food culture, which arouses a warmed debate throughout the world. Its fast and convenient consumption patterns, meet up with the needs of the Us citizens and offer them multiple options and infinite convenience. Therefore, eating in fast food stores has become a U. S. lifestyle, which includes been infiltrating every aspect of American life and thus the fast food culture came into being.
Culture, as an invisible build up of civilization, occurs via a tangible medium, such as food. We've all observed the old adage 'you are what you eat', but will it make sense? Put simply, it at least illustrates the fact between someone's personality and what he eats. Due to the intimate connection between the two aspects, junk food, an North american style eating ingestion, may possibly come with an inseparable relation with American worth. Consequently, this thesis tries to go over the American junk food culture from the perspective of American value orientation to get a fresh new picture of American fast food culture.
Introduction
The author endeavors to employ Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's Value Orientation Theory to analyse North american fast food culture, looking to achieve profound understanding of American values with regards to fast food culture. Besides, the author purposes to check the extensive program of the idea.
In addition, this thesis will familiarize the visitors with the magnate of American fast food industry-- McDonald's, the first junk food restaurant surrounding the world, from a completely different group of eyes. As the derivative of McDonald's, McDonaldization is a mirror reflecting the typical areas of American culture. This thesis provides specific information about the worldwide renowned brand-- McDonald's and its own impact on North american junk food culture. In this way, a general examination goes into details to evaluate the application of the worthiness Orientation Theory.
Last but not least, this thesis aims to prepare individuals who will stay at the United States with a brand new outlook of American junk food culture. Thus, they could be well-prepared for the intercultural communication and adapt themselves soon while they are really overseas. By appreciating American worth and their fast food culture, students will possibly have an improved performance and behavior to avoid social shock.
The idea of the Value Orientation Theory was made by Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck in 1961. The Value Orientation Theory is composed of five categories relating to individual activities and their relation to each other. Appropriately, these five categories are man-nature orientation, activity orientation, time orientation, human to character orientation, and relational orientation.
Fast Food Region: The Deep Part of the All-American Food (2001) is a book by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser that examines the neighborhood and global impact of the United Expresses fast HYPERLINK "http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Fast_food"food industry. He explains various high-tech functions of the base and its intensive protective system, speculating that if the worst were to happen to the fast food industry. Schlosser advises, it could give important clues to the nature of American population.
This thesis tries to adopt the two studies analysis the North american junk food culture from the point of view of North american Value Orientation which has never been done before.
This thesis is divided into three chapters the following.
Introduction: It commits to briefly introduce the purpose and need for the study, and thesis group.
Chapter One: It analyses reasons for the prevalence of junk food in America through the use of the Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's Value Orientation Theory. Basic ideas of the Theory as well as American worth based on the idea, and their relations with the prevalence of American fast food will be elaborated.
Chapter Two: With this Chapter, the famous fast food brand McDonald's and its own derivative McDonaldization will be offered, a prime exemplory case of American fast food eidos which have a great effect on American society even to the whole world.
Chapter Three: It dissects the double-sided effect of American junk food, which, on the other side, shows the interrelations of American value orientation and American junk food culture.
Conclusion: This part is a summary of the thesis and a vista into the future for American fast food.
Chapter I Known reasons for the Prevalence
1. 1 Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's Value Orientation Theory
The concept of the Value Orientation Theory was created by Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck in 1961. THE WORTHINESS Orientation Theory comprises five categories, such as man-nature, activity, time, individuals to mother nature and relational orientations, all of which show their interrelationship with human being activities.
Table 1 : Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's Value Orientation Theory
Aspirarional
Values
Man is born good
Becoming is best
Future oriented
Humans dominate nature
Competitive
Static
Values
Man is born neither good nor bad
Just being is best
Present oriented
Humans in tranquility with nature
Collectivist
Conservative
Values
Man is born bad
Being working is best
Past oriented
Nature dominates humans
Hierarchical
Man-nature
Activity
Time
Human to nature
Relational
Individuals in america are nature dominates humans. "This notion has managed to get possible for america to improve the course of streams, harvest forests for real wood and newspaper, breed cattle for increased meat production and damage disease-causing bacterias. " Literally, it seems that people in america tend to controll everything, like the environment, but this belief has added to the material wealth of the United States without a doubt.
The next two categories are activity and time orientation interrelated in a sense and offer with the function or the use of amount of time in relation to individuals activity. In the United States, efficiency and practicality is of overriding importance with time management, which includes end up being the second nature to many American people. Thus, they strive to do everything successfully as possible.
The man to character part explores real human rights and responsibilities as well as this is to be a man. Post-modern American values tended to view people to be born wicked with the to be good, while contemporary beliefs will be more across the lines that humans are blessed with an assortment of or the potential for being both good and wicked.
The last category discusses the relational value, implying that the partnership of an individual is to others. As everybody knows, america is the most individualistic country on the planet. "The worthiness of individualism in the United States is shown in the belief that individuals should established their own goals and follow them independently. " This capability to set these goals and make decisions independently is the top-drawer in USA culture.
People in america, with regards to the worthiness Orientation Theory, almost appears to have a control complex. For instance, they have got domination over character, which includes helped their country end up being the overlord of the world. They always remember the need to control their own time. Alternatively, the individualism of the United States demonstrates that individuals there would prefer to be in demand of their own lives and leave their fellow men only if there is no direct profit to themselves.
1. 2 Reasons for the Prevalence
All the American values added to the prevalence of fast food in the United States. High efficiency and fast-paced work aren't only a brilliant manifestation of the modern-day society, as well as infiltration of space in people's lives. Therefore, eating in junk food stores has become a U. S. lifestyle. This lifestyle developed into a means of life and attitudes, and got spread to other areas, and formed a certain culture. That is known as junk food culture. Weighed against three meals every day, junk food is a condiment, a style toward American life-style. Burgers, pizza, fried products with cheese, French fries, donuts, and all such food items that can be prepared and offered quickly are termed as fast-food and have plenty of consumers from all age ranges. Fast food is actually on-the-go food, quickly made, and dished up within minutes for people who lead fast-paced lives. For those city dwellers, eating appears to turn into a burden, so fast food is particularly advantageous to the people who workday and night. North american fast food shows its most significant top features of being reliable, convenient, and hygienic. It embodies the American prices and the objective needs, but also as a modern dining idea of intake received the world's most successive identification and acceptance, surging to the world. The American fast food culture, not only has been a symbol of apparent significance in the platform of the normal American life-style, but also has broken through the region, state, national cultural discrepancy and the hurdle of traditional diet plan, as a lifestyle, a ethnical style swept the world, thus winning reputation both at home and in foreign countries.
The experience of fast food connects with the high intake in the present day community. General economic status and standard with their cultural characteristics determine that contemporary contemporary society can only be considered a ethnical industry, and the culture of fast food is typical of the culture industry. Whether people's feelings on this kind of culture are good or not, the fast food culture has nearly turn into a satisfier to people's demand. Therefore, there may be in-depth connection between the fast food culture and the people's emotions.
"The junk food culture as some sort of commodity, intake is its purpose and reason for development. " The junk food culture draws in people's interest by its brilliant form of attractive lines and eye-catching decorations. Consumption of fast food culture is the nature of romantic relationships through market positioning. Because of the general public sentiment, there may be such a demand and it takes its fast-food culture version of this consumption. In the commerce society, the general public desires for fast food expand considerably, which contributes to the emergence of fast food culture. Therefore, constantly necessitating promoting the fast-food culture helps it be have great vitality to stand in the business society. It could be seen that the fast food culture and the general public requirement will connect to each other and consequently get further wide-spread.
Chapter II McDonald's and McDonaldization
The McDonald's was the first fast food restaurant ever before. By this time, the other famous fast-food brands just like KFC, Pizza Hut which are the world's three top fast food brands from America had been known by all people, which constituted a robust fast food empire and developed swiftly. People could not avoid these fast-food chains easily wherever they are simply off to, including China. McDonald's originated in america and its ramification--McDonaldization means efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. It is one of the very most important products of the United Point out in the 20th century. Along with the profound meaning of McDonaldization has broadened as time goes on and becomes the feature of your times.
Mc or Mac is in the initial Scottish family name indications, which means "kid of". Name it and the other English class framework. Like, such as with Edison-- son of Edith; Wilson-- kid of William. Naturally, McDonald is child of Donald.
According to term formation, it is easy to analyse the structure of McDonaldization, which is dependant on the first verb McDonald into McDonaldize, and added the suffix tion. The suffix 'tion' requires two meanings as follows:
(1) --- the process or talk about of
(2) --- the product of or the institution produced by
Obviously, McDonaldization could be thought as the process where the principles of the junk food restaurant are approaching to dominate more and more sectors of American population as well as of all of those other world.
As a derivative of McDonald's, McDonaldization is a mirror, which reflects the typical aspects of American culture as follows.
Efficiency-- The so-called McDonald's efficiency is to point out McDonald's best approach of making people achieve physical satiety, which is the embodiment of the move line operation, products simplification and selection restriction. The employees are all trained high efficiency in placing your order and organizing food. On the other hand, McDonald's isn't just time-saving, money-saving, but also provides attractive kitchen environment for the clients, especially the setting of the children's playground, which permits parents and children, each in his proper place, to enjoy entertainment and eating in a required time.
Calculability-- It stresses the calculation and quantification of products, reflecting in two aspects: the development process such as rate, and the final results. After the production of the meals and the sales time become measurable, the producing and sales process will be predictable. According to the record, McDonald's attempted to complete a hamburger + milkshakes + fries the offering services in 50 a few moments. People connect great importance to its unified price and service, specially emphasising on "fast", because one of the American beliefs is "time is money". McDonald's working steps ensure its calculability, for illustration, when crispy fries is deep-fried, the fries machine will automatically improve the funnel; when the cup is full, the drink machine will automatically turn off and this computerized planning system is to avoid operator's problem or extended processing time. Eventually, this process can be calculated, quantified, to ensure uniform quality and number.
Predictability-- It lays a whole lot emphasis on guidelines, organized management and rules that McDonald's products and services stay unchanged all around the globe. It performs in a variety of ways, such as the almost uniform design style, the staff's words and deeds and the types of food. In this way, people go all over the world, as long as they step into the McDonald's, in which people can anticipate what they need to order, what things to eat, just how long to eat, will be kept an impression that McDonald's is no surprise reasoning that McDonald's personnel procedures, and even the greetings, are ritualized and highly scripted. Everything in McDonald's is able to be foreseen.
Control-- McDonald's type of Control is via technological means to replace real human labor, and finally in control of people as people are uncertain, unpredictable, inefficient while technology and machines can easily be manipulated. With the manipulation of the device, flow control functions and facilities for employees and customers, McDonald's has achieved the two-way control: a high degree of mechanization, limited items on the menu, not really a comfortable seat, all those in control of the customers to eat and leave. In a normal restaurant, the chef is the drivingforce and engine motor. The chef's feeling can even impact the quality of the food he has made. In addition, it is difficult to supply every customer's appetite since their goals are generally different. But McDonald's don't need to take the time. Its employees can handle food preparation automation after obtaining a short period of training, then directly go to induction, machine procedure to create the consistent tastes. The U. S. advocate innovation, However, the technology McDonald's presents is the fact whichever McDonald's you walk in, you experience the same and you are feeling the same. Because of the programmed service, no variance is tolerable. Admittedly, this one-size-fit-all impact is also a kind of innovation.
Chapter III Double-sided Effects
Over the previous three decades, fast food has infiltrated every nook and cranny of the American contemporary society. A business that started with a handful of humble hot dog and hamburger stands in southern California has disperse to every part of the nation, selling a broad selection of food wherever customers may be found. Fast food is now offered at restaurants and drive-throughs, at stadiums, international airports, zoos, high colleges, elementary universities, and colleges, on cruise lines, trains, and airplanes, at K-Marts, Wal-Marts, gasoline stations, and even at clinic cafeterias. In 1970, Americans put in about $6 billion on junk food; in 2000, they spent more than $110 billion. Us citizens now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, software applications, or new automobiles. They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, papers, videos, and documented music.
Pull available the goblet door, have the rush of cool air, walk in, can get on line, review the backlit color photographs above the counter-top, place your order, hand over a few us dollars, watch teenagers in uniforms forcing various switches, and occasions later take hold of a plastic holder filled with food twisted in colored paper and cardboard. The whole connection with buying fast food has become so usual, so completely unexceptional and mundane that it is now overlooked, like cleaning your pearly whites or stopping for a red light. It has become a social custom in the us as the apple pie is often a small, rectangular, hand-held, frozen, and reheated apple pie.
Fast food has proven to be a revolutionary force in American life. What people eat or don't eat has always been determined by a sophisticated interplay of sociable, economic, and technological forces. The early Roman Republic was fed by its citizen-farmers; the Roman Empire, by its slaves. A nation's diet can be more revealing than its fine art or literature. On any given day in america about one-quarter of the adult inhabitants visits a fast food restaurant. During a relatively brief period of time, the fast food industry has helped to change not only the American diet, but also their scenery, economy, workforce, and popular culture. Junk food and its results have grown to be inescapable, whether or not you do eat it twice each day, try to avoid it, or have never taken an individual bite.
3. 1 Positive Effects
Fast food helped bring a rich ethnical diversity of ideals. Fast-food culture, loaded in the idea of being fast, convenient, successful, changing, fashion features, enhanced individuals' perception of your energy and sense of competition. Furthermore, it induces individuals to work in the unconscious of efficiency, value of your energy, avoid procrastinate, and keep fast-paced work and life.
Fast food has such a huge impact on people's culture and market. The fast-food culture has an extremely mixed audience. Because the scope of junk food industry consumption stretch, the impact on the economy will increase. The professionals of fast-food industry promote their products through multimedia and advertising, so that there is people's love-hate romance with fast food. To be able to get better performance, lots of the leading fast food brands involved in a fierce price battle, which also stimulated the public's utilization, leading to another wave of cost-effectiveness.
The McDonald's Firm has turned into a powerful icon of America's service market, which is currently responsible for 90 percent of the country's new jobs. In 1968, McDonald's operated about one thousand restaurants. Today it has about twenty-eight thousand restaurants worldwide and opens almost two thousand new ones each year. Around one from every eight workers in america has sooner or later been employed by McDonald's. The company on a yearly basis hires about one million people, more than other American organization, people or private. McDonald's is the nation's largest buyer of beef, pork, and potatoes, and the next largest buyer of chicken. The McDonald's Firm is the largest owner of retail property on the globe. Indeed, the company earns nearly all its revenue not from retailing food but from collecting hire. McDonald's spends more income on advertising and marketing than every other brand. Because of this it has changed Coca-Cola as the world's most famous brand. McDonald's operates more playgrounds than another private entity in america. It really is one of the nation's largest distributors of toys. A study of American schoolchildren found that 96 percent could identify Ronald McDonald. The sole fictional identity with an increased degree of reputation was Santa Claus. The impact of McDonald's on the way we live today is hard to overstate. "The Golden Arches are actually more widely recognized than the Christian cross. "
3. 2 Negative Effects
Fast-food culture is more than a means of ethnic consumption, but rather a style of life and values as well. Its commercial aspect, characteristics and the marketization shown the quest for the ethnic environment flooded with material dreams and sensual excitement.
One of the ironies of America's junk food industry is a business so dedicated to conformity was founded by iconoclasts and self-made men, by enterprisers willing to defy regular opinion. Few of the people who built junk food empires ever went to college, let alone business university. They performed hard, took risks, and followed their own pathways. In many respects, the fast food industry embodies the best and the most severe of American capitalism in the beginning of the twenty-first century-- its constant stream of services and improvements, its widening gulf between abundant and poor. The industrialization of the restaurant kitchen has allowed the junk food chains to rely upon a low-paid and unskilled workforce. While a handful of workers manage to rise up the corporate ladder, the vast majority lack full-time job, receive no benefits, learn few skills, exercise little control over their workplace, quit after having a few months, and float from job to job. The restaurant industry is currently America's major private workplace, and it pays some of the cheapest wages. During the economic increase of the 1990s, when many American personnel liked their first pay boosts in a generation, the true value of salary in the restaurant industry prolonged to fall season. The roughly 3. 5 million fast food workers are undoubtedly the largest group of minimum income earners in the United States. The only People in america who constantly earn a lower hourly income are migrant farm workers.
Moreover, eating junk food and leading a inactive lifestyle trigger over weight, which leads to other difficulties like the increase in the cholesterol rate, blocking of the arteries, the increased risk of coronary diseases, in addition to the general physical distress posed by the extra weight. Junk food is also addictive and therefore it's very difficult to give up on their oily and fatty foods and soda pops and turn to healthier choices. Thus continuous and regular use of fast food can result in an overall harmful condition. Malnutrition, overweight, increased risks of coronary attack, hypertension and an overall poor body are some of things that follow an easy food habit. So if people want to lead a healthy and fulfilling life it's the best to cut down the fast food intake, turn to healthier options and complement it with regular fitness exercises. Health is one of the most important aspects that need to be taken care of for being truly happy in life. So, it is crucial to solve this over weight problem.
I do not suggest to suggest that fast food is solely responsible for every interpersonal problem now haunting america. In some instances (such as the malling and sprawling of the Western world) the junk food industry is a catalyst and an indicator of larger financial movements. In other situations (like the go up of franchising and the get spread around of obesity) junk food has played a far more central role. By tracing the diverse affects of junk food. I am hoping to shed light not only on the workings of the important industry, but also on the distinctively American way of viewing the entire world.
The sociologist George Ritzer has attacked the fast food industry for celebrating a small way of measuring efficiency over every other human value, phoning the triumph of McDonald's the irrationality of rationality. Others consider the fast food industry proof of the country's great financial vitality, a beloved American institution that appeals overseas to millions who admire American life-style. Indeed, the beliefs, the culture, and the professional arrangements of the fast food nation are now exported to the rest of the world. Fast food has joined Hollywood movies, blue trousers, and pop music as one of America's most visible ethnical exports. Unlike other commodities, however, junk food isn't seen, read, played, or worn. It gets into your body and becomes area of the consumer. No other industry offers, both practically and figuratively, much insight into the mother nature of mass intake.
Hundreds of hundreds of thousands of folks buy junk food every day without supplying it much thought, unaware of the subtle rather than so subtle effects of their acquisitions. They seldom consider where this food originated from, how it was made, what it does to the city around them. They just pick up their tray from the counter, find a stand, take a seat, unwrap the newspaper, and dig in. The whole experience is transitory and soon ignored. However, they should really know what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns. As the old saying should go: "You are what you take in. "
Conclusion
According to Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's Value Orientation Theory, time is very important to most People in america. Their lives seem to be controlled by the tiny machines they wear on the wrists, reducing their discussions off abruptly to make their next appointment on time. This philosophy has enabled People in america to be extremely beneficial, and output is highly valued in their country. They have got reputation for being realistic, functional, and efficient. Listed below are the questions they are likely to ask, "Does it earn cash?" "Is it aesthetically pleasing?" "Will it be enjoyable?" In this case, fast food surfaced just with time to feed Us citizens' urge for food. Soon, it gets worldwide successive level of popularity.
It can be an extremely attractive life-style in America that everyone in the fast-paced culture is running in a hurry, fast complete his tummy, and approach efficient way to meet other needs. Therefore, fast food model or say McDonaldization, presenting a overwhelmingly effective method and philosophy, are widely used in education, sports activities, finance, or even faith, cartoons and other areas.
As the cradle of fast food, america is questioned by its people who have a rejecting frame of mind of junk food: What's the impression of the United States? Years ago, people would say "cowboy". But presently, many people would say, "McDonald's". The former response proven the "American Wish" and opened up the realms of yellow metal; while the latter one demolished the "American Dream" by creating a fast food empire with one-fifth of populace obesity children and many poor individuals.
However, "the benevolent see benevolence and the wise see knowledge. " Some hold a positive viewpoint toward American fast food culture. It is the accelerated pace of life, the more and more occupied work and the inescapable cultural phenomenon that should not be regarded as garbage. American junk food brought a abundant cultural diversity of values; additionally, it may help people be effective in various regions of daily press releases and in the plethora of useful information as well as understanding opportunities for personal development.
Anyway, so long as america is a country to pursue the timeliness, junk food will and always will take up a high put in place the wedding caterers industry and its culture.
To summarize, this thesis felicitously can be applied Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's Value Orientation Theory to analyse North american junk food culture. This has never been done in conjunction with the Theory and American fast food culture. It can help readers better understand American junk food culture from the point of view of American values. Moreover, if you will visit the United States, it will help you realize the Americans with whom you will be relating-- using their own value system rather than ours. So, beginning with American fast food culture, many more American civilizations can be comprehended and analyzed through the use of Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's Value Orientation Theory. To grasp the core idea of this construction, more follow-up studies should be motivated. In other words, further studies about this topic have to be conducted in the foreseeable future.
