This article examines the diplomatic strategies of Revolutionary Guatemala between 1944 and 1951, situating them within the broader continental realignments that occurred at the onset of the Cold War. Contrary to prevailing interpretations that emphasize covert warfare or ideological rhetoric, it argues that Guatemala’s revolutionary governments pursued a deliberate, multilateral diplomatic agenda aimed at reshaping inter-American relations. Drawing on research in multiple archives in the Americas and Europe, the article demonstrates how Guatemala engaged in initiatives such as the nonrecognition of coup regimes, support for the Larreta Doctrine, and campaigns against Francoist Spain while forging alliances with Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, and Southern Cone democracies. These efforts reveal both the agency and the limitations of states seeking to promote democracy amid shifting geopolitical pressures. By reframing Guatemala’s role, the article contributes to ongoing debates about Latin American agency, the contested nature of early Cold War alignments, and the evolution of inter-American diplomacy.

This article defends a new type of preferential hiring. Rather than compensating groups for past or present employment-related discrimination, it seeks to ensure that groups with disproportionate unemployment rates that are due significantly – but not necessarily wholly – to their members having relatively narrow competencies, such as autistic individuals and people with hearing loss, ADHD and lower education levels, are prioritized for jobs that match their abilities. After defending such competency-based preferential hiring based on its benefits for persons with narrower competencies and for societies more broadly, I address several criticisms, including concerns that this approach may be stigmatizing.

This article traces the history of how two generations of US archaeologists navigated their relationship with the Guatemalan government, from the Jorge Ubico dictatorship in the 1930s through the democratic opening of the 1940s and 1950s and the subsequent CIA-sponsored coup. Critiques of modern archaeology have focused on the discipline’s history of ideological and material collusion with different projects of US and European imperialism in the Global South. While the archaeologists discussed here benefited from US hegemony in the region, their own correspondence reflects an ambivalent relationship to formal frameworks of international law and a desire to function as autonomous nonstate actors. Rather than reflecting the political context of a given moment, the archaeologists’ behavior was often determined by a generations-old professional culture based on pragmatism and collective entitlement to the control of antiquities.

This paper documents a new, unique annual database of global wine markets covering 1835–2023. The database expands enormously the opportunities for conducting studies on national and global wine production, consumption and trade from an historical and comparative perspective for the world as a whole and for most relevant countries. The combination of this basic information with other economic variables such as real GDP, population, total merchandise trade, total crop area, and the consumption of other alcoholic drinks has enabled us to generate myriad derived variables that are helpful for comparative analyses as well as for studying the two waves of globalization.

This article focuses on how Peruvian elites mobilized representations of masculinities as part of discourses on national progress and as essential elements in their assertions of hierarchy. By addressing intellectual elites’ discourses in two cultural magazines, El Perú Ilustrado and Variedades, and various literary works during the 1884–1912 period, the article presents three arguments. First, elites’ diagnosis of the country’s backwardness emphasized Peruvian men’s deficient masculinity, which included the elites’ own white creole masculinity. Thus, intellectual elites placed great importance on catching up with European “masculine” traits as pathways to progress and modernization. Second, discourses on masculinity were central elements by which elites asserted their legitimacy. Elites mobilized discourses on masculinity selectively—either as self-restraint or as physical prowess—to reinforce their hierarchical status vis-à-vis subaltern men. Third, intergenerational conflicts between the elites’ younger and older cohorts also transpired in terms of masculinity. Each generation depicted the other as embodying abject effeminacy. As a whole, by incorporating the analytical lens of masculinity, the article provides new insights into the construction of elites’ identities and of long-standing hierarchies in Latin America.

We examine the implications of tokenization for the transformation of things into financial assets. Framed as the ‘democratization’ of financial investment by its advocates, tokenization is a process whereby asset ownership is fractionalized and represented by a digital token to be sold to potential investors on blockchain-based platforms. Tokenization can be seen as an extension of securitization to illiquid real-world assets or digital assets; as such, tokenization is often framed as a technique to isolate risks, reduce financing costs, and generate returns without selling the underlying assets. For example, real estate security tokens offer fractionalized ownership to smaller investors through digital means lowering entry barriers, though such investors still typically lack exposure to diversified real estate token portfolios. Through an analytical and empirical investigation, we argue the governance claims made about tokenization obscure a key contradiction: tokenization is touted as a way to democratize financial markets, but the necessary adaptation of tokenization to prevailing financial market infrastructures undermines this democratization promise. Engaging with this contradiction, we unpack the governance of financial markets and assets through the techno-financial transformation of things into digital tokens, focusing on the promise of tokenization to democratize finance.

Ideal Contractualism views principles of justice as corresponding to what rational, mutually disinterested persons would collectively choose behind a veil of ignorance. It is well-known that Ideal Contractualism faces profound challenges in accounting for justice between generations. We present a unified solution to these problems that involves rejecting the assumption that the parties conceive of their choices as causally efficacious and assumes instead that the parties choose in light of the news value of their decision. And we explore what concrete principles would be chosen by the parties as governing intergenerational justice against the backdrop of this assumption.

Populist presidents often mobilize popular support for their institutional reforms by claiming to promote a democracy that is genuinely responsive to the majority. However, most of the time, they are doing the exact opposite—undermining democracy. Voters, then, should decide whether to support the incumbent’s undemocratic behavior and reforms. In this article, I argue that voters will embrace the gradual subversion of democracy when they approve of the executive’s performance in office, particularly when the populist president is a prominent and influential figure. I test this argument using survey data collected in Mexico under Andrés Manuel López Obrador—an influential populist leader who enjoyed widespread approval and advanced autocratization in the name of democracy. The results indicate, indeed, that López Obrador’s presidential approval not only reinforced the belief that Mexico is a democracy but also increased voters’ support for the president if he decided to disregard the rule of law, curb the opposition’s rights, or cancel the separation of powers. These findings suggest that populist presidents might be able to persuade voters to embrace the subversion of democracy disguised as democratic improvement.

In this paper, we build a theoretical framework to better understand the polycentric governance of global socio-ecological challenges through the lenses of meso-institutional analysis. Climate change, deforestation, pollinator decline, and loss of soil fertility are examples of complex socio-ecological challenges caused by anthropic pressures at a global scale. These challenges result in intractable social dilemmas and absent or weak macro-institutions, posing questions on how subsidiary mechanisms of coordination can be adopted in a polycentric governance approach. Building on the meso-institutional framework and socio-ecological systems framework, we investigate the emergence and establishment of multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSPs), where businesses, governments, and civil society organizations try to address global challenges. Recognizing meso-institutional functions in MSPs allowed us to expand our theorizing of the polycentric governance of global socio-ecological challenges, looking at nested, interrelated, and multi-layered relations between multiple actors and organizations.

This study investigates the influence of workplace conditions on job satisfaction, focusing on environmental, occupational safety, and social factors, paying particular attention to gender interactions. Drawing on the European Survey on Workplace Health, Wellbeing, and Quality of Work Life, data from 514 employees in local companies and public organizations across six Southern European countries were analysed using discrete choice regression models. The empirical findings identify ventilation, ergonomics, social spaces, and safety training as the strongest positive drivers of job satisfaction, while repetitive work negatively affects it. The results show that women, highly educated employees, and those with permanent contracts report higher job satisfaction, with female workers benefiting most from ergonomic improvements and safety equipment. Managers should therefore prioritize improvements in workplace conditions – particularly ventilation, ergonomics, safety training, and job stability – while integrating gender-sensitive approaches to strengthen both employees’ well-being and organisational performance.

Drawing on attribution theory and impression management research, we investigate when and how abused employees engage in different coping strategies and what the interpersonal consequences of the coping strategies are for employees. Specifically, from an employee actor–based perspective, we develop and test a dual-path-mediated moderation model that represents the double-edged sword effect of abusive supervision. Using data from 444 front-line employees, we find that injury initiation motives attribution enhances the positive relationship between abusive supervision and revenge motivation, which in turn is positively related to intimidation, exemplification, and supplication. Conversely, performance promotion motives attribution strengthens the positive relationship between abusive supervision and motivation to reconcile, which in turn is positively associated with ingratiation, self-promotion, and exemplification. Intimidation and supplication are then related to increased interpersonal conflict with leaders, while ingratiation is related to reduced interpersonal conflict with leaders. Theoretical contributions, practical implications, and limitations are discussed.

Women entrepreneurs face distinct gender-specific challenges, including restricted access to venture capital, work–life conflicts driven by stereotypes, and competing demands from their roles as business owners, caregivers, and community leaders. These pressures often foster polychronicity – a temporal orientation favoring simultaneous task management. Grounded in role accumulation theory, we conduct a two-stage survey of 129 Chinese women entrepreneurs to investigate the relationship between polychronicity and resilience. We further examine three moderators – frequent interruptions, entrepreneurial experience, and emotional intelligence – that amplify polychronicity’ s resilience-building effects. This study highlights the positive association between polychronicity and women entrepreneurs’ resilience, offering new insights into temporal dynamics in entrepreneurship. It also provides women entrepreneurs with practical strategies to help them navigate multiple role challenges and thrive amid adversity by leveraging their preference for multitasking.

This essay reviews the following films:

Cuando las aguas se juntan. Dir. Margarita Martínez Escallón. Prod. La Retratista. Colombia, 2023. 85 minutes. Distributed by Cineplex.

Cantos que inundan el río. Dir. Luckas Perro (also known as Germán Arango Rendón). Prod. Pasolini en Medellín. Colombia, 2022. 72 minutes. Distributed by Briosa Films.

Del otro lado. Dir. Iván Guarnizo. Prod. Gusano Films, Salon Indien Films, RTVC Play. Colombia-Spain, 2021. 83 minutes. Distributed by DOC:CO Agencia de Promoción y Distribución.

This essay reviews the following works:

Flaco’s Legacy: The Globalization of Conjunto. By Erin E. Bauer. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2023. Pp. viii + 290. $30.00 paperback. ISBN: 9780252087158.

Indigenous Audibilities: Music, Heritage, and Collections in the Americas. By Amanda Minks. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. Pp. 256. $28.99 paperback. ISBN: 9780197532492.

Fernando Ortiz on Music: Selected Writing on Afro-Cuban Culture. By Robin D. Moore. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2018. Pp. ix + 282. $69.50 hardcover. ISBN: 9781439911730.

Sounding Latin Music, Hearing the Americas. By Jairo Moreno. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2023. Pp. x + 364. $35.00 paperback. ISBN: 9780226825687.

La conquista discográfica de América Latina. By Sergio Ospina Romero. Buenos Aires: Gourmet Musical, 2024. Pp. 314. Paperback. ISBN: 9789873823954.

A Respectable Spell: Transformations of Samba in Rio de Janeiro. By Carlos Sandroni. Translated by Michael Iyanaga. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2021. Pp. xxxix + 275. $28.00 paperback. ISBN: 9780252086083. Originally published as Feitiço decente: Transformações do samba no Rio de Janeiro (1917–1933). Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar and Editora UFRJ, 2001.

Decolonial Metal Music in Latin America. By Nelson Varas Díaz. Bristol, UK: Intellect, 2021. Pp. 256. $34.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781789387568.

Inca Music Reimagined. By Vera Wolkowicz. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. Pp. xvi + 272. $97.00 hardcover. ISBN: 9780197548943.

Inequality is an inherent quality of society. This paper provides actuarial insights into the recognition, measurement, and consequences of inequality. Key underlying concepts are discussed, with an emphasis on the distinction between inequality of opportunity and inequality of outcome. To better design and maintain approaches and programmes that mitigate its adverse effects, it is important to understand its contributing causes. The paper outlines strategies for reflecting on and addressing inequality in actuarial practice. Actuaries are encouraged to work with policymakers, employers, providers, regulators, and individuals in the design and management of sustainable programmes to address some of the critical issues associated with inequality. These programmes can encourage more equal opportunities and protect against the adverse financial effects of outcomes.

Societal concerns on the environmental impact of manufacturing activities in developing economies have intensified over the past decade. Open innovation (OI) has emerged as a promising approach to mitigate these adverse effects without compromising sustainable performance (SP). This primary aim of this study is to examine and evaluate the current state of research on OI and SP practices for further empirical studies in developing economies. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework, we systematically reviewed and analysed 108 articles from Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and ScienceDirect databases related to OI and SP practices. Our study highlights significant knowledge gaps in the relationship between OI and SP in manufacturing, noting a predominant focus on developed countries. This research contributes to the existing literature by identifying critical contextual and theoretical gaps, providing valuable insights and theoretical implications for future OI and SP research agendas in developing countries.

Unlike existing studies on labour and income in the digital era, this paper argues not only that the impact of the digital economy’s intervention in the labour process is fragmented rather than comprehensive, but also that the transformation of job demand and labour supply behaviours is simultaneous and related to the attributes of the industries in which they operate. Drawing on the conventional biased technological progress hypothesis and labour process theory, we argue that the digital economy has generally increased the labour income inequality for migrant workers in China. Using geospatially matched China Labour Dynamics Survey 2018 microdata and provincial digitalisation indices, we uncover a digital ‘upgrading trap’: the development of the digital economy hides the process of inequality formation in the hedging relationship between objective labour demand ‘upgrading’ and subjective labour supply ‘expanding’. The former can be summarised as the risk of ‘no job’ and the latter as the risk of ‘no way back’. Counterintuitively, consumer Internet development demonstrates a greater role in both reducing workers’ inequality in secondary labour markets and promoting a fair primary distribution. These findings reconceptualise digital inequality as coevolutionary outcomes, and offer a tripartite governance way for inclusive growth through portable skill certification, algorithmic accountability mechanisms, and interoperable social security systems.

Health policy reforms often fail due to design flaws, implementation gaps, and political barriers. This paper examines the role of government stewardship in addressing these barriers drawing on lessons from healthcare reforms in Sanming, China, a city that has become a nationally recognised model for comprehensive health system reform. Employing a qualitative approach, the analysis traces how six core stewardship functions – strategic visioning, institutional alignment, instrument design, partnership management, accountability reinforcement, and learning facilitation – enabled Sanming’s government to control costs and improve service delivery and health outcomes. Sanming’s experience illustrates the potential for local government stewardship to catalyse reform in the face of constraints. Interviews indicated that strengthened stewardship enabled the government to set strategic direction for the health system, mobilise stakeholders, formulate workable policies, and adapt to changing needs during implementation. However, participants identified persistent challenges, including uneven distribution of capacity across agencies, changes in the external policy environment, and deficient stakeholder feedback loops. While specific to the local context, the core stewardship competencies identified in the paper offer a generalisable framework for strengthening reform governance in other settings. As countries seek to build resilient and equitable health systems, the lessons from Sanming’s stewardship model provide a timely contribution to the global health reform discourse.