Summary
Contents
Subject index
This innovative text focuses on an American icon, central to United States culture, that is rapidly becoming a global expression of prosperity - the credit card. George Ritzer explains what the credit card tells us, both good and bad, about the essence of the modern US and why and how the credit card is helping to transform much of the world. Drawing on the insights of both classic and contemporary social thinkers, including Georg Simmel, C Wright Mills, Karl Marx and Max Weber, as well as micro-macro, agency-structure and Americanization theories, Ritzer also reveals to students the powerful insights gained from using the sociological `imagination' applied to a topic that students know about and are interested in.
Credit Cards, Fast-Food Restaurants, and Rationalization: All You Need is 42 Digits to Make One Long-Distance Phone Call
Credit Cards, Fast-Food Restaurants, and Rationalization: All You Need is 42 Digits to Make One Long-Distance Phone Call
As you saw in Chapter 2, both the credit card and the fast-food restaurant were products of post-World War II changes in American society. Both have, in turn, greatly contributed to an accelerating rate of change in our society. The concern of this chapter is the similarities and differences between these two seemingly mundane but nonetheless enormously important social and economic developments. The main focus is the degree to which the two are part of the general process of the rationalization of society. I will pay special attention to the ...
- Loading...