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I discuss Eleanor Westney’s significant contributions to the field of Japanese business studies in four regards. First, her genuine interest in Japan and her deep knowledge of Japan and its language drove her thorough investigation of Japanese business and management. Second, her disciplinary approach to Japanese business and society has added value to the studies of Japanese businesses by linking idiosyncratic phenomena to general sociological perspectives. Third, she played a bridging role, facilitating interactions between the Western and Japanese academic communities. Finally, she has been extremely positive, encouraging, and inspiring to people worldwide working in the field. Westney’s contribution to academia clearly reaches beyond the field of Japanese business studies and extends to the entire field of international business and R&D/innovation management.

This chapter examines everyday food production and consumption by three white working class Jewish sisters in the “outer boroughs” of New York City between the war years of the 1940s and the suburbanization of the 1950s.

The analysis combines theory, social history, and political economic context as well as the memories of daily life during this period.

This analysis is not generalizable to the working class population at large during this era.

The chapter shows the importance of changes in the political economy as well as family structure and intersectionality on the production and consumption of food.

The importance of government intervention and regulation in food distribution as a mechanism to combat scarcity and to increase equality is demonstrated.

The chapter examines the concept of intersectionality from the perspective of white, working class Jewish women. It analyzes the relationship between government policies, the growth of monopoly capital and women’s agency, and it fleshes out the concepts of social reproduction and use value.

This chapter examines the economics of alternative healing in Brazil.

Two narratives are selected from extensive observations and interviews over a period of years. The presentation chronicles the accounts of people experiencing physical symptoms who sought further advice from friends and relatives after visits to conventional medical providers failed to cure them.

In response to a recommendation from one of those consulted, one person went to a spirit “received” by a Kardecist/Spiritist healer-medium while the other obtained treatment from an otherworldly being at an Umbanda center. The respective “therapeutic” procedures are described and analyzed in terms of the beliefs and the worldviews of each of the traditions. If satisfied with the outcome, the patient fulfills an implicit bargain with the otherworldly being(s) and its religious group by adopting their beliefs and practices. This conversion is “payment” for the healing services rendered.

Since some treatments are successful and others are not, the implications of this exchange is that many Brazilians may change their religions several times during their lifespan. As a result of this behavior individuals circulate among the several religious groups that are always in competition with each other.

The analysis provides a distinctive insight into, and original way to understand, alternative health care in Brazil.