Page 164 - The Disneyization of Society

CONTROL AND SURVEILLANCE

Disney theme parks in a variety of ways: in the way in which the behaviour,
imagination and experience of visitors are controlled; as a recurring motif; in terms
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of control over the behaviour of employees; and in its control over its own destiny.
These facets of control are not found in other Disneyized institutions to the same
degree, but that is not to say that control is unimportant in them. Control is cru-
cial to consumption because prospective consumers have to be placed in positions
that are likely to maximize their inclination to consume, so it is not surprising that
one of the chief contexts within which control in relation to Disneyization was dis-
cussed in this chapter was the shopping mall. This is also a major site for surveil-
lance which is designed to ensure that consumers feel safe and that undesirable
elements are kept out as far as possible. Under Disneyization, service workers too
are controlled in ways that are common to most jobs – that is, control involves a
mixture of technical, supervisory, bureaucratic and cultural approaches – but in
addition they are frequently subject to surveillance to ensure that they conform to
the customer service norms that are so important to service sector firms.
However, resistance is also possible and there has been a discussion of forms of resis-
tance that are specific responses to the demands of Disneyized work, that is, work that
requires the service worker to engage with customers in a warm and accommodating
manner. In addition, consumers sometimes resist the implied requirements of being
in a mall. That such forms of resistance exist provides an important corrective to any
implication of excessive determinism that might be inferred from an emphasis on
control but it also represents a less pessimistic standpoint.
Control and surveillance have been presented as enabling factors. They help
Disneyization to be realized rather than being a dimension of it. They are a means of
smoothing the progress of the four dimensions outlined in the previous four chapters.
Moreover, when dealing with control over service workers, I have been less interested
in covering the whole gamut of approaches, most of which have been addressed in
the concept of McDonaldization. 91 Instead, I have been concerned with aspects of
the control of employees that are directly relevant to Disneyization, namely, the
requirement to display emotional labour and the growing use of procedures to check
on whether service employees conform to this requirement. Disneyization needs
control and surveillance to operate effectively, which means that they are required
to enhance the capacity and propensity of consumers to spend.

Notes

1 Ritzer (1993). 6 Quoted in Raz (1999: 188).
2 Bryman (1995: 123–4, 1999a). 7 Walt used this term to refer to visual
3 Bryman (1995: 99–117); Wasko (2001: lures that enticed the visitor in a certain
166–70). direction.
4 Shearing and Stenning (1984: 345). 8 Sayers (1965).
5 Hiaasen (1998: 35). 9 Bryman (1995: 105).