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Abstract
In this book, George Ritzer, demonstrates the irrational consequences of the rational desire to consume and commodify. He examines how McDonaldization might be resisted, and situates the reader in the new cultural spaces that are emerging in society: shopping malls, casinos, and theme parks, the new 'cathedrals of consumption' as he calls them. The book: shows how new processes of consumption relate to globalization theory; unearths the roots of problems of consumption in older sociological traditions in illuminating discussions of the work of Thorstein Veblen and the French situationists; and indicates how transgression is bound up with consumption, through an investigation of the obscene in popular and postmodern culture.