Page 184 - The Disneyization of Society

IMPLICATIONS OF DISNEYIZATION

Culture thus became central to the business sphere as something that can be
enlisted for commercial ends and indeed almost inseparable from it. Such a view
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radically alters our perception of what cultures are, where they come from and
how they arise, but most importantly they revise our understanding of them by
investing them with an economic aspect.

Conclusion

In this final chapter, I have sought to outline some of the broader ramifications
of Disneyization and some of the wider theoretical issues with which I see it as
being entangled. In a sense, it becomes a useful lens through which to view a
number of issues that are of concern in contemporary social sciences, such as
globalization and the fusion of the economic and the cultural. More fundamen-
tally, I have sought to outline how I perceive Disneyization, namely, as a set of
processes that are circling the globe and which are to do with the provision of a
framework for making goods, and in particular services, desirable and therefore
more likely to be bought. It is not in any sense an alternative to the concept of
McDonaldization and is in many ways to do with increasing the appeal of goods
and services in the face of the growing standardization that is associated with
McDonaldization.
Disneyization has almost certainly not infiltrated modern economies and
cultures to the degree that McDonaldization has. In particular, relatively few insti-
tutions are fully Disneyized in terms of all four dimensions. In this connection, it
is worth recalling the distinction introduced in Chapter 1 between structural and
transferred Disneyization. The success of the Disney theme parks and the grow-
ing contact that people from different corners of the globe have with them (either
through overseas visits or through the arrival of Disney theme parks abroad) enhance
people’s awareness of the commercial and other advantages of Disneyization. In
other words, the growing awareness of the parks is likely to result in transferred
Disneyization, though structural Disneyization is also likely to continue apace. In
previous chapters, particularly Chapter 5, I have shown that such a process of
transferred Disneyization has almost certainly been taking place.
There is a growing recognition that the Disney theme parks are widely held up
as models that are directly copied and the dimensions of Disneyization articulated
in this book are likely to be deeply implicated in this process of emulation. As one
writer has put it:

Disney has been so successful in promoting a new type of resort that Disneyland and particularly
Disney World have become not just product leaders but yardsticks against which an ever wider
range of facilities dealing directly with the general public are measured, whether by developers
[or] the public. These range from shopping malls to a new generation of world fairs and convention