Enchanting a Disenchanted World

Continuity and Change in the Cathedrals of Consumption

George Ritzer

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781483343297
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Sociologie

The only book to connect the everyday world of the 20-something undergraduate consumer with sound sociological analysis of the world of consumption

Enchanting a Disenchanted World, Third Edition examines Disney, malls, cruise lines, Las Vegas, the world wide web, Planet Hollywood, credit cards, and all the other ways we now consume. Thoroughly updated to reflect the recent economic recession and the impact of the internet, bestselling author George Ritzer continues to explore this book's central thesis: that our society has undergone fundamental change because of the way and the level at which we consume.

This Third Edition demonstrates how we have created new "cathedrals" of consumption (places that enchant us so as to entice us to stay longer and consume more) while continuing to take capitalism to a new level. These places of consumption, whether in our homes, the mall, or cyberspace, are in a constant state of "enchanting the disenchanted," luring us through new spectacles because their rational qualities are both necessary and deadening at the same time.

New and Hallmark Features

• Offers a unique analysis of the world of consumption, especially the settings in which consumption takes place
• Discusses the recent global economic recession throughout
• Offers rich details on consuming in such places as Las Vegas, Disney World, on cruise ships, in Wal-Mart, at McDonald's, and, new to this edition, on the Web
• Includes a wide range of theoretical perspectives—Marxian, Weberian, critical theory, postmodern theory—as well as a number of concepts such as hyperconsumption, implosion, simulation, and time and space to show students how sociological theory can be applied to everyday phenomena

1

A Tour of the New
Means of Consumption

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Disney’s World

The New Means of Consumption

Cathedrals of Consumption

Overview of the Cathedrals of Consumption

Franchises and Fast-Food Restaurants

Chain Stores

Shopping Malls

Electronic Shopping Centers

Discounters

Superstores

Cruise Ships

Casino-Hotels

Entertainment Aimed at Adults

Eatertainment

Other Means of Consumption

Conclusion

We consume many obvious things—fast food, T-shirts, a day at Walt Disney World—and many others that are not so obvious—a lecture, medical service, a day at the ballpark. We consume many goods and services that we must have in order to live and more that we simply want or think we need. Often we must go to particular settings to obtain these goods and services (although, as we will see, more and more of them are coming to us). This book is concerned with those settings: home-shopping television, shopping malls, online shopping sites, fast-food restaurants, theme parks, and cruise ships, to name a few.

Unlike many treatments of the subject of consumption, this is not a book about the consumer¹ or the increasing profusion of goods and services.² Rather, it is about the settings³ that allow, encourage, and even compel us to consume so many of those goods and services. The settings of interest will be termed the new means of consumption. These are, in the main, locales that came into existence or took new forms after the end of World War II and that, building on but going beyond earlier settings, dramatically transformed the nature of consumption. Because of important continuities, it is not always easy to distinguish clearly between new and older means of consumption,⁴ but it is the more contemporary versions, singly and collectively, that will concern us.⁵

To get a better sense of the new means of consumption, let us first look at Walt Disney World and the larger Disney operation of which it is part. Disney’s worlds and lands are important not only in themselves but also because they have served—through a process that has been labeled “Disneyization”⁶—as a model for other amusement parks, as well as many other new means of consumption.

DISNEY’S WORLD

Building on late-19th- and early 20th-century efforts, including world exhibitions (and fairs) and Coney Island in New York, Walt Disney and his company created a revolutionary new type of amusement park, the theme park, defined by areas, or even an entire park, devoted to a given motif (e.g., the various lands at Disney World to be discussed below). The first of its theme parks, Disneyland (renamed Disneyland Park in 2007), opened in Southern California in 1955 (a second, adjacent theme park, Disney’s California Adventure, as well as a shopping area [basically a mall]—Downtown Disney—were added in 2001).⁷ It was followed by Disney World in Florida in 1971, Tokyo Disneyland in 1983 (the adjoining DisneySea opened in 2001),⁸ and Disneyland Resort Paris in 1992 (Walt Disney Studios Paris joined it in 2002). In addition, the Hong Kong Disneyland was opened in 2005, and another is planned for Shanghai in 2014. The Disney theme parks (even the initially financially troubled Paris Disney) have, of course, been enormous successes, in great part because they built, and greatly expanded, on the bases of the success of the early amusement parks. This includes entertainment for the masses, great spectacles, use of advanced technology for consumption rather than production, the commercialization of “fun,” and the offer of a safety valve where people can expend their energies without threatening society. In addition, Disney systematically eliminated the “seedy” and risqué elements that characterized and played a major role in the decline of many amusement parks in the first half of the 20th century.

Disney transformed amusement parks by, among other things, cleaning them up, creating a far more “moral” order than most of the early parks ever had, and making them acceptable as family entertainment.⁹ Disney offered a self-contained, controlled environment free from the kinds of problems that had undermined earlier parks. It pioneered the order and constraint that are characteristic of virtually all contemporary theme parks.¹⁰ Although visitors arriving at earlier amusement parks felt a sense of looseness, even danger, tourists arriving at Disney World know and take comfort in the fact that inside the gates lies a tightly regulated world. The primary appeal of early amusement parks such as Coney Island was that they offered visitors “a respite from … formal, highly regulated social situations,”¹¹ but the main attraction at Disney World is just such tight regulation.¹² To put it another way, although parks such as Coney Island provided “a moral holiday,”¹³ Disney World created a new morality emphasizing conformity to external demands.

Disney World is highly predictable. For example, there are no midway scam artists to bilk the visitor. There are teams of workers who, among their other cleaning chores, follow the nightly parades cleaning up debris—including animal droppings—so that an errant step should not bring with it an unpleasant surprise. There is no sexual titillation of the kind that characterized many early amusement parks. The park is continually cleaned, repaired, and repainted; there is nothing tacky about Disney World. The steep admission charge, the high cost of eating, shopping, hotels (especially many of those on park premises) and so forth, as well as the costs involved in getting there, have succeeded in keeping “undesirables” out. A Disney executive said, “Think of Disney World as a medium-sized city with a crime rate of zero.”¹⁴ As a result of this sanitizing of the park experience, Disney parks have become a favorite destination for middle-class families and many other people as well.

The heart of Disney World is the Magic Kingdom (a telling name given, as you will see, our interest in this book in enchantment) and its seven themed “lands.” The trek through Disney World begins (and ends) in Main Street, U.S.A. (basically an outdoor shopping mall), which leads to the six other themed lands—Tomorrowland¹⁵ (with, among other things, a rollercoaster-like space adventure on “Space Mountain”), Fantasyland (“It’s a Small World,” among other attractions), Adventureland (“Pirates of the Caribbean,” etc.), Frontierland (anchored by such traditional favorites as “Country Bear Jamboree”), Liberty Square (with, among others, “The Hall of Presidents”), and Mickey’s Toontown Fair (with “Minnie’s and Mickey’s Country Houses”).

Epcot Theme Park has Future World, which includes “Mission: Space Pavilion.” Reminiscent of world fairs, Epcot’s World Showcase has pavilions featuring exhibits from a number of nations, including China (“Reflections of China”), France (“Impressions de France”), and Mexico (”Grand Fiesta Tour”).

Another set of major attractions at Disney World is Disney Hollywood Studios, which includes the “Great Movie Ride,” “Indiana Jones: Epic Stunt Spectacular,” and “The American Idol Experience.”

Animal Kingdom encompasses 500 acres, nearly five times the area of the Magic Kingdom. Visitors enter through the Oasis, a lush jungle-like setting that leads to the themed lands of Animal Kingdom and includes a branch of the chain of Rainforest Cafe theme restaurants. Discovery Island offers the centerpiece of Animal Kingdom, the massive “Tree of Life.” Several hundred hand-carved animals seem to grow out of the tree, inside of which is a multimedia theater. Dinoland USA attempts to depict life as it existed millions of years ago and includes the “Boneyard,” a children’s playground with equipment made out of what appear to be giant dinosaur bones. Africa includes the “Kilimanjaro Safari” involving a trip through the countryside and a high-speed automobile chase across, among other things, a collapsing bridge over a “crocodile-infested” river. Asia has the “Maharajah Jungle Trek,” and there is also Rafiki’s Planet Watch as well as Camp Minnie Mouse, which includes “Festival of the Lion King.”

Beyond the four theme parks, there are two water parks (Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach); DisneyQuest (loaded with games of all sorts); Downtown Disney, which features a shopping area (Downtown Disney Marketplace); an area that is more oriented to entertainment (Downtown Disney West Side with Cirque de Soleil La Nouba and a 24-screen AMC movie theater); Pleasure Island (in transition but with more shopping and dining); Disney’s Boardwalk modeled after turn-of-the century boardwalks like the one at Coney and with still more shops, restaurants, and entertainment; about two dozen “resort” hotels divided into four categories (deluxe villas, deluxe resort hotels, moderate resort hotels, and value resort hotels), as well as campgrounds; the town of Celebration (although in recent years, Disney has been divesting itself of its interest in the town);¹⁶ and even a huge sports complex (Disney’s Wide World of Sports, to be renamed ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex)—all means of consumption in their own right.¹⁷

Disney has become a global presence not only through its many products (the CEO claimed that worldwide, more than one billion people use a Disney product in a given month¹⁸) and theme parks but also through its many other enterprises, such as its movies (Walt Disney Studios, among others), television shows (Disney Channel), and cable television network. Of greater relevance to the concerns of this book are the 229 Disney stores that are found in innumerable shopping malls and online, Radio Disney (a children’s radio network), Disney Mobile (wireless phones, which are extremely popular in Japan despite failing in the United States market), the Disney Cruise Line, Disney’s ownership of ABC and ESPN (expanded to include ESPN2, ESPN Classic, ESP-NEWS), Disney publishing (the world’s largest publisher of children’s books), Disney theatrical producing live stage musicals in several locales throughout the world, the Disney Catalog, and even the Disney Credit Card. All of these are employed synergistically to sell one another in a tightly integrated system that ultimately sells the Disney brand name and yields huge profits. Disney in general and its theme parks in particular are revolutionary in many senses, but perhaps above all they are part of a “selling machine” capable of marketing Disney to an unprecedented degree.¹⁹ Said the CEO, “It is virtually impossible to travel anywhere in the world and not see someone wearing a piece of clothing adorned with Mickey’s smiling face.”²⁰

Disney is a potent force, and its power is reflected in the opening of the acclaimed Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles (with a startling design by legendary architect Frank Gehry) and the central role it played in the resuscitation of the area around Times Square and 42nd Street in New York City.²¹ Prior to Disney’s arrival, this area was all but dead as a comme...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Brief Contents
• Detailed Contents
• Preface
• 1. A Tour of the New Means of Consumption
• 2. The Revolution in Consumption and the Larger Society
• 3. Social Theory and the New Means of Consumption
• 4. Rationalization, Enchantment, and Disenchantment
• 5. Reenchantment: Creating Spectacle Through Extravaganzas and Simulations
• 6. Reenchantment: Creating Spectacle Through Implosion, Time, and Space
• 7. Landscapes of Consumption
• 8. The Cathedrals (and Landscapes) of Consumption: Continuity and Change
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author