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That Melchior Palyi taught a course at the University of Chicago on the European banking system is unsurprising, given his background provided in the biographical sketch presented above.

As Comaroff and Comaroff argue, in their discussion of the intersection of ethnographical research and historical perspectives, social change is a dynamic process in which existing social and political tensions, local and global, are played out, with an uncertain outcome. Change is often about how competing groups come to power (Comaroff & Comaroff, 1992). Consumer researchers have already applied this perspective on class, consumption, and change in places as widespread as Niger and the US, but not to Eastern Europe.

In the introduction to Beyond Bombshells, Jeffrey A Brown lists examples of blockbuster films with leading female heroines and proclaims that they have ‘challenged the assumption that action movies are a strictly male domain’ (2015, p. 6). His examples include, but are not limited to, the Kill Bill films (2003, 2005), The Hunger Games (2012), Brave (2012) and Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), all of which demonstrate the rise in popularity of the woman-led action film. However, these films also demonstrate a reluctance of the action film to detach itself from masculinity. Despite their female leads, these action films still foreground masculinity. The films have darker colour palettes and their female leads tend to have masculine coded traits and hobbies, suggesting that women can succeed within this genre only by distancing themselves from femininity.

This chapter analyses the subversion of the genre conventions of action by exploring the use of feminine objects in director Cathy Yan's Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020). Written and directed by women, Birds of Prey is a notable turn in the action genre as it makes use of feminine objects (hair ties, glitter, fashion, jewellery) within action sequences that don't just allow a female presence within the action, but centre feminine power. By relocating femininity and masculinity to objects rather than bodies, new ways of understanding how genre conventions are not fixed but fluid are opened up for further exploration.

Two key developments exert an important influence on the nature of human resource management (HRM) in South Africa (SA). The first is two seemingly conflicting imperatives, sometimes and arguably wrongly juxtaposed: that of developing a high-growth, globally competitive economy with fuller employment and the sociopolitical imperative of redressing past structural inequalities of access to skilled, professional, and managerial positions, as well as ownership opportunities. The first development is the related influences of globalization and multinational corporations (MNCs), information technology, and increased competition, which have become very prominent in postapartheid SA. South Africa has a dual labor market, with a well-developed formal sector employing some 8.5 million workers in standard or typical work and a growing informal labor market. In the case of the formal, knowledge-based economy, the World Wide Web, and increasing communication that the Internet has made possible, has influenced changes at the organizational level. A second development is that these changes and changing patterns of employment are having a dramatic impact on HR policies within organizations. In a knowledge-based economy, organizations rely on knowledge that is embedded deeply in the individual and in the collective subconscious. It is the property of an individual and cannot be taken away from that person (Harrison & Kessels, 2004). He or she would agree to put it in the service of the collective whole, which is known as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). In technology-driven advanced firms in SA, there are several themes among the various models of citizenship behavior: helping behavior, sportsmanship, organizational loyalty, organizational compliance, initiative, civic virtue, and self-development (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000). Many of these themes overlap with the common competencies demanded by advanced MNCs. Thus OCBs rest upon a recognition of mutuality of interest and of responsibility between the organization and the individuals. Increasing globalization and worldwide competition and the knowledge-based economy have their greatest impact on business strategies, process, and practice involving, among others, management of human resources. In this chapter we examine factors influencing the management of human resources in SA and their impact on human resource practices in organizations.