The issue addressed here is whether the spread of rationalization, or what I have termed `McDonaldization', is inexorable. That issue is examined spatially and temporally. Spatially, what we are witnessing is the increasingly global dissemination of rationalization, much of it emanating from the United States. The temporal growth is discussed from the point of view of the expansion of McDonaldization to birth and before and death and beyond; rationalization is coming to contain the entire life course (and more). Evidence of expansion does not, of course, necessarily mean that growth is inevitable. There are some hopeful social developments and there are some things that individuals can do, but it is difficult at this point to envision anything powerful enough to stem the tide in the direction of rationalization.
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