Making Fast Food: From the Frying Pan into the Fryer: x - Softcover

Reiter, Ester

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0773513876 ISBN 13: 9780773513877

Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000

Synopsis

The flourishing fast food industry represents one particular blueprint of how to live. Reiter analyses the profound consequences of this blueprint for many spheres of life: women's work, youth employment, the labour movement, the family, and the community. Since the 1970s young people and women have increasingly entered the job market in low waged, service-sector jobs. Family life, she explains, has changed dramatically in the last forty years as many activities that were traditionally part of the home have been replaced by services available in the marketplace. The production of meals and those who produce them have moved from the family kitchen to the highly regulated corporate workplace where workers are like the interchangeable parts of a machine.

About this title

Review

"A fascinating and highly readable study of the fast-food phenomenon that has become a symbol of life in contemporary society." Diane Schoemperlen, Books in Canada. "Making Fast Food is a long overdue book designed to uncover the brutal truths about the have-a-nice-day industry of burgers and French fries ... Reiter masterfully documents, analyses and attacks the low pay and appalling working conditions of the fast food labour force." Emily Caston, City Limits, London, England. "Illuminating ... This is a thought-provoking, honest, and painstaking work." Mark Abley, Montreal Gazette. "Unique ... innovative ... enticing ... An extremely important book ... Both the topic and the accessible language make it a winner. So many people have worked or eaten in fast food restaurants. I think this book will interest them." Meg Luxton, Department of Social Science, Atkinson College, York University. "Creative, demanding, and instructive ... It is so rare that scholars undertake this kind of field research ... [Reiter's study] will come to stand as a classic text on qualitative methodologies." Roberta Hamilton, Department of Sociology, Queen's University.

Synopsis

The author worked full-time at a Burger King outlet for ten months gathering information for this study. This text analyzes the profound effect the fast food industry has had on women's work, youth employment, the labour movement, the family, and the community. Family life, for example, has changed dramatically in the last 40 years as many activities that were traditionally part of the home have been replaced by services available in the marketplace. This study examines the way the fast food model is being adopted in other areas, such as health, and explores unionization in fast food businesses.

Edition details

• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0773513876
• ISBN 13: 9780773513877
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224