McDonaldization without a McDonald's: globalization and food culture as social determinants of health in urban Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is one of the few developing countries where there is no McDonald's and yet the process of “McDonaldization” is in full progress. This paper explores the food consumption practices of a group of affluent university-educated urban youth in Bangladesh to illustrate this process of McDonaldization. Based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, document review, informal observation and content analysis of advertising materials, the authors show how globalization and youth food cultures interact with each other as social determinants of health with considerable impact on the health and wellbeing of the affluent urban youth of Bangladesh.