L216: LAMP Sophomore Seminar

Business and the Humanities

Topic:  The Price of Prosperity

Paper III:          McEssay

Length:            About 4 pages

Due:                Draft:  Electronic Word file attached to e-mail by 12 midnight, Friday, March 14.

                        Revision:  Electronic Word file attached to e-mail by 5 p.m. Friday, March 28.

Grading:          You will receive electronic feedback directly in your draft, which will be returned to you via e-mail by Monday, March 24.  Your draft will have a provisional grade attached.  Only the revision will receive the grade that counts.

Introduction:

The focus of the second unit of L216 is the extreme rationalization of American businesses, the many costs – often hidden – of the fast food industry, and how the forces of rationalized globalization have affected us all.  This paper will give you the opportunity to explore these topics with regard to a specific sector of the economy with which you have personal experience.  The only “research” necessary will be to observe and think about this sector so that you can write about it authoritatively.

Assignment:

In about 4 pages, explore and discuss a rationalized business or sector of the economy, showing how that business is “McDonaldized” and discussing the costs and losses that accompany such rationalization.

Requirements:

· Choose any business or sector of the economy outside the fast food industry.

• Incorporate the work of Ritzer, Schlosser, and Barber in your discussion.
• Develop your paper around a central, synthetic argument (thesis).

You should choose a topic YOU are interested in, but here are some examples to get you thinking:

Automobile Industry                Cosmetic Industry                               Home Furnishing Industry

Hollywood                                Magazines                                           Shopping Malls

Large Box Stores                    Beer or Soft Drink Companies           Fashion Industry

Example

The breakfast food (cereal) industry.

Thesis:   While cereal manufacturers and grocers seem to offer us tremendous choice among various types of breakfast cereal, real choice about our morning meal has been greatly diminished.

I. “Research” might include:

· A trip to the cereal aisle at a grocery store.

· A close look at a few boxes of cereal while eating breakfast.

· Attention to some TV ads for breakfast cereal.

II. I might discuss how the cereal industry is McDonaldized by looking at how it is marketed and sold to us because it offers a predictable, efficient, calculable, and controlled way to have breakfast.  Also, I might discuss how the supermarket cereal aisle creates the illusion of choice.

III. I might discuss the lack of real choice by showing how almost all cereal is made by the same few companies, how the products are extremely similar, and how real choice about breakfast is slowly being eradicated because we have learned to think about breakfast as a bowl of cereal rather than other, more nutritious, less expensive options.

IV. I might also discuss how sugary cereal is marketed to children (using Schlosser as an analogy), how it encourages a “taste” for sugar in children, and the effects high sugar consumption might have (dental cavities, obesity, hyperactivity)

V. I might conclude that the big winners in the cereal industry are companies like Kellogg’s and Post, while the losers are poor families that don’t even realize there are breakfast options that are just as convenient, but much cheaper and much more nutritious than Frosted Flakes, Cap’n Crunch, or other such breakfast foods.