Fast Food Enterprises

Abstract

The rapid growth of fast food enterprises across cultural, national, and geographical frontiers as well as their high visibility have established it as an area in which numerous social science theories have been developed and rehearsed. First, this expansion indicates fundamental changes in consumer tastes and lifestyles, associated with changing family structures and employment patterns. Second, it is viewed as a feature of cultural and economic globalization, marking the colonization by transnational organizations of people's eating habits. The implications of this globalization are frequent targets for social, cultural, economic, and environmental critiques. Third, fast food enterprises seem to offer a prototype of the transition of the service industries from people-based technologies to Taylorist approaches. It is further argued that the fast food industry has become a paradigm for profound changes in the nature of contemporary societies. The term McDonaldization has been used to indicate the increasing dominance of the core principles embodied by the fast food restaurant in virtually every sector of society. Fourth, lying at the meeting point of work and leisure, fast food enterprises represent a vital area on which to develop theories regarding the formation of contemporary identities and the interface between customer and employee.