{"id":6280,"date":"2015-10-29T20:03:30","date_gmt":"2015-10-30T03:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=6280"},"modified":"2015-10-29T20:03:30","modified_gmt":"2015-10-30T03:03:30","slug":"ill-take-a-big-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/ill-take-a-big-mac\/","title":{"rendered":"I’ll Take a Big Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Big<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why do we allow Big Macs to enter our physical body?\u00a0 Why and how do we allow our physical body to enter a fast-food restaurant named McDonalds?\u00a0\u00a0 Have we been influenced with the globalization of McDonalds that challenges us to violate proper nutrition guidelines and eat a Big Mac?\u00a0\u00a0 This scenario is played out within the framework of contemporary social theory.<\/p>\n

Social theory seems to be an enigma that Anthony Elliott found difficult to define in his book, \u201cContemporary Social Theory: \u00a0An Introduction.\u201d \u00a0Elliott claims \u201cI have tried to cover most of the major traditions of thought \u2013 from the Frankfurt School to postmodernism, from structuralism to post- feminism \u2013 along with overviews of many recent cutting edge developments.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 The concepts that are associated with social theory, and even more challenging is to work within the confines of and idea defined as\u00a0 \u201ccontemporary\u201d, create a challenge to writer and reader alike.<\/p>\n

The reviews, by collegiate educators inside the front cover, praise Elliott for his sociological prowess and willingness to engage in an extremely difficult subject matter.\u00a0 Elliott is revered as one of the top educators in regards to contemporary social theory.\u00a0 His \u201cContemporary Social Theory\u201d is considered an exhaustive work on a difficult subject.<\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elliott begins his genesis for his work from the Nazi-influence of the Frankfurt School originating in the 1920\u2019s to sexual orientation and globalization theories of contemporary times.\u00a0 \u201cContemporary Social Theory\u201d is an attempt to define the influence and impact that occurs when both social norms and social abnormalities are inflicted on a society.\u00a0 Elliott transparently states, \u201cThere is, to date, no single adequate definition of society in social theory \u2013 and indeed one objective of this book is to trace the various definitions of society that have emerged in social theory during the course of the twentieth century and into the early 2000s.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

Elliott proposes that there are \u201cbasic\u201d societal norms that can be challenged.\u00a0 These challenges can run the gambit from Freud to the feminist movement.\u00a0\u00a0 I struggled to grasp Elliott\u2019s thought process and how he was challenged to even define what contemporary social theory.<\/p>\n

My research revealed that there was \u201cThe Routledge Companion to Social Theory\u201d.\u00a0 Elliott wrote in the introduction, \u201csocial theory is not the province of any one discipline in the social sciences, although it has certainly been institutionalized and professionalized in some disciplines \u2013 such as sociology, political science and anthropology, for example. Such a rough definition of social theory, I would suggest, goes to the heart of the problem of the production and reproduction of society, as well as of the relation between human agency and social structure, all of which can be traced out in social-theoretical debates in the social sciences throughout the nineteenth, twentieth and, now, twenty-first centuries.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Elliott attempts to merge multiple disciplines in his book from sociology to anthropology.\u00a0 Elliott attempted to define his work by stating that, \u201cSocial theory is the systematic analysis of the broad developmental contours of modernity, involving the multidisciplinary reconstruction of terms, issues and problems in the social sciences such as human agency, intersubjectivity, social structure and society.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Analysis<\/strong><\/p>\n

The McDonalds phenomena garnered my attention on several levels.\u00a0 Elliott allows a fast-food icon to be linked to the throws of social theory in globalization and standardization.\u00a0 Elliott states, \u201cThe smooth, regulated world of McDonald\u2019s is a life without surprises: whether you are in Tokyo or Tehran, Melbourne or Memphis, an order for a Big Mac will get you . . . well, a Big Mac!\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

I found myself at the Hong Kong Advance walking into a McDonalds.\u00a0 I made an assumption that it would be near or exactly the same experience that I would get in Arizona.\u00a0 The globalization, standardization, and acceptability of the brand lured me in to a Hong Kong McDonalds.<\/p>\n

Elliott theorizes and I accepted his hypothesis based on my personal response.\u00a0 My Hong Kong McDonalds met my criteria because of the \u201ccentral defining aspects of McDonaldization? Ritzer identifies four dimensions: (1) efficiency; (2) calculability: (3) predictability: and (4) control. At its starkest, McDonaldization is a process geared towards regulatory control, standardization and the administered ordering of consumption processes. We are talking, in short, about the framing of a society without disruption.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

If that same thought process happens with McDonalds, does sexuality, Marxism, morality, feminism, structuration, social norms and religious experiences fall into the same social theory?\u00a0 I do believe that we are heavily influenced by social processes that lead to social theories that we accept as normal.\u00a0 Fast food\u2019s presence throughout the world has reach the place of globalization.\u00a0 What seven billion people\u00a0 \u201care witnessing today, through the process of McDonaldization, is a globalization of American fast food culture.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

Our DMin program is to explore the \u201cpractice\u201d of ministry.\u00a0\u00a0 Elliott has challenged me to believe that the Great Commission from Matthew 28 and Mark 16 is achievable.\u00a0 If a Big Mac can be purchased globally with acceptability, well knowing that it is fast-food that challenges nutritional laws, what should we be doing with the ministry of Jesus Christ in the world?<\/p>\n

Instead of ordering a Big Mac at a global McDonalds worldwide, I should be encouraging others to make Jesus known globally.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 unity prayer in John 17 was for us to be one as He and the Father are one.\u00a0\u00a0 That is standardization and globalization at its best!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Anthony Elliott, Contemporary Social Theory:\u00a0 An Introduction<\/em> (London and New York:\u00a0 Routledge, 2014), xii.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid., 4.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Anthony Elliott, The Routledge Companion to Social Theory <\/em>(London and New York:\u00a0 Routledge, 2010), xi.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Elliott, Contemporary Social Theory:\u00a0 An Introduction<\/em>, 25.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid., 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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