Page 175 - The Disneyization of Society

THE DISNEYIZATION OF SOCIETY

to one journalist, staff at a chain of co-operative shops are being sent to train in
North American sales service, of which learning to engage in pleasantries and
166 smiling are a key component. 29 Service quality began to improve quite quickly,
although some assistants found it difficult to adapt. Interestingly, the chain’s
main competitor also began smiling and customer service lessons. Also, the sug-
gestion that the insistence on emotional labour in Disneyland Paris has not been
as pronounced as in the American parks (see above) is relevant to Disneyization
and local adaptations to it and suggests that this aspect of Disneyization could not
be easily introduced in the park. These various fragments suggest that emotional
labour may face constraints and even resistance among customers and staff when
it is transplanted into some national contexts.
A somewhat different slant is provided by Fantasia’s account of the reception of
30
McDonald’s in France. There, the attraction of McDonald’s for young people was
what he calls the ‘American ambience’. Insofar as the display of emotional labour
is an ingredient of this ambience, it may be that it is not that the French enthu-
siasts respond positively to emotional labour per se, but that in the context of
McDonald’s they respond positively to the total package, of which smiling
counter staff is a component. In other words, as the writers who emphasize local
adaptations to global processes point out, local consumers frequently make their
own culturally bespoke uses of globalizing forces like Disneyization.
Clearly, while it is being suggested that Disneyization is a set of principles that
is spreading outwards across the globe, it is also apparent that, as the case of emo-
tional labour shows, the principles are not allowed to travel without hindrance.
On the other hand, evidence to suggest that there are local forms of or responses
to the other three dimensions of Disneyization is sparse. The evidence with regard
to emotional labour suggests that they may be adapted, but since this is only one
of four dimensions of Disneyization, further evidence is needed to establish a ten-
dency towards glocalization or hybridization. Indeed, as the previously cited evi-
dence concerning emotional labour implies, we need to take into account the
ways such global influences are working their way into and are being incorpo-
rated into local cultures. At the same time, the process of local adaptation helps
to bring into sharper relief the significance of cultures. At precisely the same time
that the world is frequently viewed as becoming more homogeneous, our aware-
ness of the nature and significance of local cultures seems to become better
defined.
Disneyization is a less visible process than the arrival of brand names on foreign
shores. It is a set of processes designed to maximize consumers’ willingness to pur-
chase goods and services that in many cases they might not otherwise have been
prompted to buy or that they might have bought from a competitor. Theming
provides the consumer with a narrative that acts as a draw by providing an experi-
ence that lessens the sense of an economic transaction and increases the likeli-
hood of purchasing merchandise. Hybrid consumption is meant to give the