Arch 577 – Fall 2021

Name: Kaitlyn Baker, Aafreen Merchant, Bryan Cruz López,

Nithyashree Balachandar Iyer

Section Instructor: Soumya Dasgupta , Aparajita Santra

Section Number: AD1

Reading notes for Week #: 6

George Ritzer, “The Weberian Theory of Rationalization and the McDonaldization of
Contemporary Society”,

In: Illuminating Social Life: Classical and Contemporary Theory Revisited pp. 41-59

● · According to the author, the western world was growing increasingly rationalized
with time. (pg42)

● · There are four types of rationality that were the core of Weber’s Theory of
Rationalization (pg42)

i- Practical Rationality – calculating all possible means available and going ahead
with the idea or alternative that gives them the best ultimate end - all human beings
engage in practical rationality in an attempt to solve routine daily problems.

ii- Theoretical rationality – involves logical deduction, abstract concepts and giving
precise meanings to the world that appears haphazard.

(practical rationality involved actions whereas theoretical rationality was a cognitive process
mostly followed by intellectuals.)

iii- Substantive rationality – involved values or cluster of values that guided people
in their daily lives – linked to economic action - To Weber (1921/1968), economic
action is substantively rational to “the degree to which the provisioning of given
groups of persons with goods is shaped by economically oriented social action under
some criterion (past,present, or potential) of ultimate values, regardless of the nature of
these ends.” – thus it involved a choice of means to ends guided by some larger system of
human values.

iv- Formal Rationality – based on universally applied rules, regulations and laws.
Institutionalized in large scale structures such as bureaucracy, modern law, capitalist
economy – rules and laws – not personal choices but existing rules, regulations,
structures

(Formal rationality often leads to decisions that disregard the needs and values of actors,
implying that substantive rationality is unimportant. Example – economic system)
● · The Weber mentions about the disregard for humanity in rational economic system –
example of capitalistic minds of individual – entrepreneur within a formally rational
economic systems, his objectives are aligned towards profit making – workers are not
taken care of, no basic humanity or values. (Pg 43)
● · Unlike the first three types of rationality i.e. Practical, theoretical and iii-
Substantive – formal rationality had not existed at all times or in all places – it was
created and dominated in the Western industrialized world.
● · Weber anticipated that the fading of substantive rationality will then bring upon the
formal rationality, and he was fearful that if this new idea of western civilisations will be
followed, the world will be filled with people who simply follow rules without regards to
humans.
● Weber saw bureaucracy as the epitome of formally rational domination.
● Bureaucracy followed formal rationality where top officials developed rules and lower
level officials found best means of ways to follow and complete tasks. (pg 44) - five
elements of efficiency, predictability, quantifiability (calculability), control through
substituting nonhuman technology for human judgment, and the irrationality of
rationality.
● Bureaucracies operate in highly predictable manner – employees perform duties in
specified steps at quantifiable rate – excellence is given to handling large number of
things – adaptability of human decisions vanishes into the dictates of rules, regulations,
and institutional structures – tasks completion should be in a prescribed manner and
performance should be met or one can get demoted or fired.
● · Weber praised bureaucracies for their advantages over other mechanisms for
dis-covering and implementing optimum means to ends, but at the same time he
was painfully aware of the irrationalities of formally rational systems (Pg 45)
● Weber feared that the society would be dominated by rationalized principles and people
will be locked into series of rationalized workplaces, rationalized recreational settings,
and rationalized homes.
● He had a pessimistic view of the future.
● McDonald has employed rational principles - uti-lized bureaucratic principles and
combined them with others, and the outcome is the process of McDonaldization (pg 45)
● The essay written by the author on “The McDonaldization of Society.” – main idea was
that Max Webers theory of rationality was true. American fast food restaurant - leads the
process of formal rationalization.
● Fast food and its craze has taken over the entire world, not just America – surrounded on
college campuses, national high schools and grade schools – even in hospitals
irrespective of it being low on nutritional value.
● McDonalds influence is also felt in the number of social phenomena that have come
to be prefaced by “Mc. - dentistry,medicine, child care, the training of racehorses,
newspapers, and television news have come to be modeled after food chains -
 McDonaldization is the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are
coming to dominate more and more sectors of society. (Pg 46-47)

Efficiency

● · The first element of McDonaldization is efficiency. Many aspects of the fast-food

restaurant illustrate efficiency, especially from the viewpoint of the restaurant, but none
better than the degree to which the customer is turned into an unpaid labourer. (Pg 47)
● · Customers are expected to stand in line and order their own food (rather than having
a waiter do it) and to “bus” their own paper and plastic (rather than hav-ing it done by
a bus person) – getting work done by the consumer – unpaid employee – handed over
cup and have to fill on own soda – some restaurants you punch in your own orders –
salad bars classic example of consumer working – buy an empty plate ad load it with
available food items (Pg 47 - 48)
● · This is very efficient from the perspective of the fast-food restaurant and the
supermarket because only a very small number of employees are needed to keep the
various compartments well stocked. (Pg 48)
● · Gas station – fill your own gas – receipt paid by cards – no contact to anyone
working at gas stations.
● · Business – automated voice calls – pushing number and codes by extension
● · Diet preprepared food available, frozen meals – add water for meal – All of this
company no longer operates in stores – counselled through calls or web.

Calculability

● · McDonaldization involves an emphasis on things that can be calculated,

counted, and quantified - emphasize quantity rather than quality - quality is equal to
certain, usually large, quantities of things. (Pg 49)
● · Emphasis on quantity or size of the food served – eg – Whooper, Big, Biggies etc -
not just restricted to fast-food restaurants even American Airlines boasts that it serves
more cities than any other U.S. airline.
● · Omit mentioning anything about the quality of the product – eg anything about the
passenger comfort due to the numerous flights – huge decline or absence of quality in
society as a whole.
● · Newspapers – instead of offering details stories – short, easy, quickly read stories.
● · Increasing importance of credentials after their name – the more number of initials
the more client is impressed (Pg 49-50)
Predictability

● · Rationalization involves the increasing effort to ensure predictability from one time
or place to another- people want to know what to expect in all settings and neither want
nor expect surprises. (Pg 50)
● · Movie industry increasingly characterized by predictability – growing reliance on
sequels to successful movies rather than producing completely different movies based on
concepts, ideas and characters -- not even sequels, some even have prequels – eg X-Men,
Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the rings etc.
● · Routine use of sequels – development parallels and is part of McDonaldization of
society.
● · From viewers perspective is there is great comfort in knowing that they will
once again encounter favourite characters played by familiar actors who find themselves
in accustomed set-tings. Moviegoers seem more willing to shell out money for a
safe and familiar movie than for a movie that is completely new to them (Pg 51)
● · Shopping malls is traceable to its predictability – saves from unpredictabilities of
weather
● · One finds the same chains represented in malls throughout the country.
● · The structure and makeup of the newspaper is highly predictable from one day to
another - The stories are all predictably short and easily digestible.

Replacing people with Nonhuman Technologies

● · Increased control and replacement of human with nonhuman technology are

combined as they are closely linked. (Pg 52)
● · McDonald’s seeks to exert increasing control over both its employees and its
customers - steadily replacing people with nonhuman technologies - technologies like
robots and computers are easier to control than humans.
● · production of some of the raw materials required by such restaurants—bread,
fish,meat, and eggs—has also come to be characterized by increasing control
through replacing people with nonhuman technologies.
● · Replacing cooks and their judgment through cookbooks – temperature set
microwaves and ovens
● · In supermarkets in place of human checker reading the price, the mechanical scanner
– eliminated human job – customer scanning and paying.
● · Computerised airplanes – push of buttons and pilots can lean back while the plane
flies to its destination and lands on predetermined runways. (Pg 54)
The Irrationality of Rationality

● · There are great gains involved in increasing rationalization, resulting from increases
in efficiency, predictability, calculability, and control through the substitution of
nonhuman for human technology. (Pg 54)
● · More people have access to different food types, microwavable food dinner in
seconds – supermarkets are more efficient – online shopping – good medical care – ATM
allows money withdrawal any point of day – drive throughs etc – allows people to do
things that were impossible before (Pg 55)
● · The rational systems also allow us to avoid the problems created by non rational
systems in other societies.
● · Although there are many advantages to a McDonaldized society, there are also
great costs associated with McDonaldization that can be dealt with largely under
the heading of the “irrationality of rationality.”
● · By the term irrationality – it means rational systems are unreasonable systems - serve
to deny the basic humanity, the human reason, of the people who work within or are
served by them – dehumanizing systems - anti human or even destructive of human
beings.
● · Most obvious – long lines on counters and drive thru – what is supposed to be
efficient is quite inefficient.
● · Rational systems are not less expensive; they force us to do a range of unpaid work;
and, most important from the point of view of this discussion, they are often inefficient.
(Pg 56)
● · Example of It being destructive to human beings – high calorie, fat, cholesterol,
salt, and sugar content of the food served at fast-food restaurants – many suffer
from being overweight or have high cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, and perhaps
diabetes – most worrisome eating habits in children .
● · The fast-food industry has run afoul of not only nutritionists but also
environ-mentalists. It produces an enormous amount of trash, some of which is
non-biodegradable.
● · The emphasis on speed, microwavable food has brought with it poorer taste and
lower quality – lost essence of family meal together (Pg 57)
●
● · The author concludes the argument by stating that these are not truly rational systems
– spawn of all kinds of problems for health of the customers as well as the wellbeing of
the environment – lead to inefficiency rather than efficiency.
● · These rational systems, however, can spin beyond the control of even the
people who occupy the highest level positions within those systems. This is one of the
 senses in which we can, following Weber, talk of an “iron cage of McDonaldization.”
It can become a system that comes to control all of us. (pg 58)

Conclusion

● · The objective of the chapter was to show the continued, if not increasing, relevance
of Max Weber’s theory of rationalization to the modern world. Although the bureaucracy
may have been replaced by the fast-food restaurant as the ultimate example of a
rational structure and bureaucratization by McDonaldization as the heart of the process,
the rationalization that undergirds both sets of structures and processes remains at least as
powerful a force today as it was in Weber’s day - new ones are coming under the sway of
the rationalization process. In this sense, we seem even closer to the iron cage of
rationalization today than was the case in Weber’s day.

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F.W. Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management, 1911. pp. 1-11.

Chapter 1
● “The principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the
employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employé.” (p. 1)
● Maximum prosperity
○ For the owner
■ Large dividends to the company or owner (p. 1)
■ Maximum development of every branch of the business. (p. 1)
■ Seek permanent prosperity. (p. 1)
○ o For employee
○ § Best wages
○ § Seek for efficiency = “[…] highest grade of work for which his natural abilities
fit him”
● Always exist a war between employers and employees in order to reach maximum
prosperity. (p. 1)
● Scientific management
○ o Contrary to common thought, scientific management believes that the
maximum prosperity for the employers and for the employees are the same and
not two different paths. (p. 1)
○ o It is impossible to maintain one kind of prosperity for long periods without the
other. (p. 1)
 ● · “[…] the greatest prosperity can exist only as of the result of the greatest possible output
[…]” (p. 2)
○ Smallest human effort (p. 2)
○ Smallest cost for the production (buildings, machines, materials, etc.) (p. 2)
● Based on the previous statement, the most important thing for both the employer and
employee is to reach the maximum efficiency possible. That is possible through training.
(pp. 2-3)
● Soldiering – “[…] deliberately working slowly so as to avoid doing a full day’s work
[…]” (p. 3)
○ o Affects wages and prosperity (p. 4)
● · Three causes for soldiering:
○ 1st- the fallacy that an increasement in production will result in unemployment (p.
4)
■ The demand for an article increases as its cost decreases. (p. 5)
○ o 2nd – defective systems that lead the employee to soldier to protect his interest
(p. 4)
■ According to “The Shop Management” by The American Society of
Mechanical Engineers – June 1903:
● Natural Soldiering – instinct to take it easy; work slow (p. 6)
● Systematic soldiering – soldiering caused by the relation with other
men (nowadays will be with other coworkers) (p. 6)
● Soldering breaks the mutual confidence which should exist
between employer and employee. (p. 8)
rd
○ o 3 – change inefficient practice for efficient rules-of-thumb based on scientific
study
■ § “The enormous saving of time and therefore increase in the output
which is possible to effect through eliminating unnecessary motions and
substituting fast for slow and inefficient motions for one has personally
seen the improvements which result from a thorough motion and time
study, made by a competent man.” (p. 9)
■ Only with scientific study, it is possible to know which of the many ways
of achieving the same goal is the most efficient. (p. 9)
■ Should exist a balance between management and workers’ responsibilities.
“Those in the management whose duty it is to develop the science assume
a much larger share of responsibility for results than under usual
conditions is assumed by the management.” (p. 10)

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Gropius, The New Architecture and the Bauhaus, pp. 38-51

Introduction by Frank Pick
- “Plea for thinking out afresh all the problems of building in terms of current materials
and current tools, tools which have become elaborated into machines” (pg. 7)
- “[...] claims that only out of such a fresh input of thought can a true architecture be
established” (pg. 7)
- “New architecture begins by being stark and formal, and seeks norms or standards” (pg.
8)
- Reaction from the welter of copying and adaptation of styles which have ceased
to have significance in relation to modern building
- New architecture is passing from a negative phase to a positive phase (pg. 8)
- Seaking to speak from what it omits or discards, but through what it
conceived and invents (pg. 9)
Rationalization
- “Building, hitherto an essentially manual trade, is already in course of transformation into
and organized industry” (pg. 38)
- “We are approaching a state of technical proficiency when it will become possible
to rationalize buildings and mass-produce them in factories by resolving their
structure into a number of component parts” (pg. 39)
- The repetition of standardized parts, and the use of identical materials in different
buildings
- “Will have the same sort of coordinating and sobering effect on the aspect of our
towns as uniformity of type in modern attire has in social life” (pg. 40)
- Will in no sense restricting the architect’s freedom of design
- Net result should be a happy architectonic combination of maximum
standardization and maximum variety (pg. 40)
- Dry assembly offers the best prospects (pg. 40)
- Due to moisture being the principal obstacle to economy in masonry or
brick construction
- Moisture is the direct cause of the most weaknesses of old building
methods
- Leads to badly fitting joints, warping or staining… creates serious
loss of time and money through delays in drying... (pg. 43)
- Eliminating this factor, assures the perfect interlocking of component parts
so a prefabricated house can be produced in a factory
- Use of reliable modern materials enables the stability and
insulation of a building to be increased and its weight and bulk
decreased
- Walls, floors, roof, fittings - conveyed to the site and put together
in no time
 - “Many of the things that are regarded as luxuries today will be standard fitments
in the homes of tomorrow” (pg. 43)
- New Architecture
- poises buildings lightly, yet firmly and bodies itself forth, not in stylistic imitation
or ornamental frippery (pg. 44)
- “Simple and sharp modelled designs in which every part merges naturally into the
comprehensive volume of the whole” (pg. 44)
- Thus the aesthetic meest our material and psychological requirements
alike
- “Learned to seek concrete expression of the life of our epoch in clear and crisply
simplified forms” (pg. 44)
- 1908
- “Conceptions of architecture and architectural education were still
entirely dominated by the academic stylisticism of the classical
orders” (pg. 47)
- “Obsessed by the conviction that modern construction technique
could not be denied expression in architecture, the expression
demanded the use of unprecedented forms” (pg. 47)
- “An architect cannot hope to realize his ideas unless he can influence the industry
of his country sufficiently for a new school of design to arise as a result” (pg. 51)
- “To make this possible, would require a whole staff of collaborators and
assistant… in close cooperation to further a common cause” (pg. 51)

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Ute Poerschke, Architectural theory of Modernism: Relating Functions and Forms, 2014. Ch.
1 pp 1-27.

Architectural Functions
● Key term in architecture. Used in the 18thC and 20thC to pursue very different
and contradictory goals.
● “Function always came up in architecture when it was necessary to describe
something new or a turning point.” (p.1)
● Repeatedly re-introduced in the past two centuries only to face criticism and lose
significance.
○ Most recent use- 1980
○ In the 1920's, it was the central idea for High modernism and lasted until
Functionalism in the 1960’s
○ Postmodernism discredited it completely.
 ● There is, however, new interest in the subject of function and its relation to form.
○ Rather than looking at form and function being an antithesis of each other,
there is an attempt to understand why the two terms have been debated/
topics of discussions for over 2 and a half centuries.
○ An attempt to understand how it can be invigorated with new meaning
today.
○ “In view of the challenges architecture faces on practical and theoretical
levels, one might think that the idea of function-form relatedness is again
well positioned as part of a paradigm shift for the era to follow star
architecture. (p.1)
● The goal of this book is to show how architectonic functions have been diversely
interpreted.
○ Talks about when the term ‘function’ was first used in architecture.
○ Positions and counterpositions in the past 2.5 centuries.
○ Conclusion of the book: “observations about revived discussion about the
term that demonstrate its application to current ethical technological, and
aesthetic issues in architecture concerning globalization, digitization and
sustainability.” (p.2)
○ These themes relate to theories of systems and complexity- connected to
function.
● Function is a concept that crosses disciplines.
Terms-
● Functionalism- use of this term and its spread dated to the year 1932 (although it emerged
in 1920’s )
● “You look about, and find a word which is already an important.ene in the vocabulary of
architecture-one which has been used too freely and too loudly, perhaps, by some vrai
romancier-you add an "ist" or an "ism" to it, and you call it "functionalism." The new
word has a "modem" ring about it, it's "smart" and "hard," and perhaps a bit "bolshy"
too.” Architectural review, 1932 (p.2)
○ The author says that the word 'functionalism' was meant to be vague to cover all
the work in the 1920s and had to just be seen as a powerful name.
○ The lack of definition of function led to the ambiguity in the meaning of
functionalism:
■ “The programmatic weakness of functionalism begins already with the
non-definition of the term function.” Hartmut Seeger, 1968. (p.3)
■ “The notion of functionalism lacks consistency. The ambiguity results from
the lack of answer to an essential question: What is function?”
Emmanuelle Gallo and Claude Sxhnaidt (p.3)
■ It is for this reason that they had 18 different definitions for functionalism.
● Function: The struggle with defining function itself.
 ○ Some complain that the concept of function is narrow.
■ Bruno Flierl- only “material-practical tasks”initially included within
function. It is followed by the inclusion of “the ideal aesthetic is also part
of the function of architecture.” (p.3)
■ All textx have mixed interpretations and hence do not offer any insight
○ Function: Hence its interpretations lead to misunderstandings.
● The author says the present study about function and functionalism should not be to
define them but understand their many interpretations and “wrest something timeless from
them and arrive at new conclusions” (p.3)
Relationship b/w Scientific and Architectural understanding of function
● Function: Derived from the Latin word, Functio: performance
● Werner Nehls says that we treat buildings as living things, (eg. knife cuts, the wedge
splits p.4). He concluded that relating this to the term function creates confusion.
● Function has been related to human activity since 3rd C (when it was frequently used).
● In the 18th C Latin was the dominant language, and functio acquired different meanings
and was used only in sciences and official language . It had not found its way in art and
architecture yet (not found in Alberti and Palladio’s work).
● Heinrich camp in 1801 said function is “a foreign word imposed on our language” (p.4).
He proposed replacing the word with “officiate”.
● Immanuel Kant gave the word function an active meaning.
○ This was a problem for most architects for the past 2.5 centuries- “how could a
building be regarded as active?”
○ But theorists from the 18th Century to present describe buildings as active.
● Etymology, natural history, and biology were cited by theorists while understanding the
meaning of the architectural concept of function. - interpreted as the performance,
process or activity of an organ. (p.5)
● Another interpretation by Margit Staber- “connected to the relationship of two variables”
example: performance of cellular structure in relationship to the whole organism. (p.6).
● AD306- first time the word function was used. Then, 16th C was next time the word was
used in the context of natural sciences.
○ Juan Luis Vives speaks about the function of the soul and Rene Descartes speaks
about bodily functions. (p.7)
○ Jean Fernel talks about three types to which 3 bodily functions could be assigned:
natural faculties, the animal faculties, vital faculties. (p.7)
● Descartes tries to eliminate these “faculties” and tries to find a “mechanical explanation
instead.” p.7
○ Descartes takes up William Harvey’s document where he struggles to describe the
term function.
○ He next writes about “function” in the title “Description of the human body and
all its functions [...] (p.7)
● Deliberate juxtaposition of function and form: 1800- used in biology during taxonomy.
○ Jean Baptists and George Cuvier make the concept of function key to sciences.
(p.8)
○ Came with the concept of classification- visible features and invisible features-
functions.
○ Cuvier: “in a body, not only are all of the functions of the organs related to one
another, but also, since “each of those organs acts upon the rest, and experiences
their action in its turn [...] all their forms have relation to one another” (p.10)
● Function means both activity and a relationship of parts and the whole. (p.9)
● Benningoff’s definition of functional: “something is functional if it is contributing to a
higher system” (p.10)
● Raises the question of what this higher system is.
● From the use of function in biology and natural sciences, we know that it is given the
meaning “orientations of the partial processes to the whole” (p.11)
● Architects in the 18th and 19th C had an appeal of the term function mainly because of
Vitruvius’ part-to-whole relationship especially “in the sense of transporting human
proportions to buildings. (p.12)
● Function in Mathematics: “the difference between a function and a general relation is
that a function determines a clear assignment of an element from one set to an element
from a different set, [...]” (p.12). Leibniz’s introduction of the mathematical concept of
function. (p.14-15. About the use of function and relation in mathematics by Leibniz and
Bernoulli)
● 2 examples from architectural theory show that the mathematical understanding of
function as a relationship of part to whole was used in architectural discourse as well.
(p.16)
○ “The primary conclusion is that a particular statement can be clarified by asking
three questions: what is the relationship?; What are the parts and what i sthe
whole; what is the activity and variability?
● Function in sociology: Functio primarily referred to human actions. Hence function was
“concerned with with the active relationship of an individua to the state, to the existing
social system” (p.17)
● “Architecture can learn from sociology how to appropriate concepts of function and
purpose in a more differentiated way than it is thus far” The difference between function
and purpose is critcized more vigorously than architecture. (p.20)
● Three criteria:
○ Relation
○ Difference in orientation of the relations.
○ Activism
● The challenge of this book is to show how the three criteria can be thought of in
architecture.
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