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The Latin American region experienced an electoral shift to the political left during the 2000s but this leftist shift did not radically alter the political economy of the region. Following Jessop’s (2008) strategic-relational approach to theorizing about the state, this paper focuses on the perspective that the structure of the state is both an outcome of prior social struggles and a structuring mechanism for the social actors that attempt to enact political and economic reforms.

After demonstrating what this has historically meant for the types of state that have existed in Latin America during the past century by reviewing some of the literature on the corporatist and bureaucratic-authoritarian states and clientelism, this paper argues that the neoliberal reforms of the 1980s and 1990s constituted a new type of state – the Latin American neoliberal state. This analysis is then focused on the literature that seeks to describe the new lefts in the region, while continuing to focus on the role of the neoliberal state in structuring these new lefts’ terrain of struggle.

Understanding the new lefts in Latin America and the types of reforms that they are capable of making requires that we better understand this new type of state. Due to the structural limitations imposed by the neoliberal state, the lefts are not able to radically alter the region’s political economy.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate line managers’ influence on employee usage of a web-based system for occupational health management.

Questionnaires were used to measure line managers’ transformational leadership at baseline and their change-supportive managerial activities during weeks 16–52. Employee initial (weeks 16–52) and sustained (weeks 53–144) use of the web-based system was measured by extracting their frequency of logins to the system from electronic records. Data were collected from six white-collar organizations from 2011 through 2013. Mixed Poisson regressions were used to analyze the influence of transformational leadership and change-supportive managerial activities on employee usage.

As predicted, line managers’ change-supportive activities influenced the employees’ initial and sustained use of the system. Line managers’ transformational leadership had no direct effect on employees’ use of the system, however transformational leadership was indirectly associated with employees’ initial and sustained use of the system through line managers’ change-supportive activities.

The study adds to the understanding of the role line managers’ play during the implementation of occupational health interventions. The findings suggest that the line managers’ change-supportive activities directed toward the intervention are important for employees’ initial and sustained use of the system. The influence of transformational leadership was indirect, suggesting that line managers may need to direct their leadership behaviors toward the intervention to facilitate implementation.

This research explores how gender influences the experience of cancer care and proposes a new explanation for gender differences in posttraumatic growth among individuals who received blood or marrow transplantation as treatment for lymphoma.

We use mixed methods, combining quantitative examination of surveys with 180 survivors with qualitative findings from semi-structured face-to-face interviews with 50 survivors. Participants were 2–25 years after transplantation. Quantitative data were analyzed using statistical modeling; qualitative data were analyzed using thematic coding.

A quantitative examination indicates that compared to men, women report greater posttraumatic growth and more positive impacts of cancer despite having lower physical health. These gender differences are robust even after controlling for physical and emotional well-being, life satisfaction, and social support. Qualitative findings from in-depth interviews show that gender norms and expectations about masculinity and femininity shape how individuals experience illness and perform the role of patient and survivor. Expectations about being a good patient and survivor are more aligned with expectations about femininity and tend to conflict with expectations about masculinity. Gender norms discourage men from reporting personal growth from cancer and encourage women to overemphasize the positive aspects of having had cancer.

This study was conducted two or more years after treatment had ended; therefore, potential for recall bias existed. Nevertheless, the findings suggest that viewing cancer as transformative is part of a gender performance that limits opportunities for individuals to experience and express a diverse range of reactions which, at times, increases the emotional burden on individuals.

By combining survey data with in-depth interviews, the study offers new insights into the causes of gender differences in the reporting of patient outcomes after illness.

The research examines the simultaneous processes of value co-creation and value co-destruction in the implementation of a mobile banking application in rural Colombia. Rural communities experience digital and financial deficits and often become the object of technology-based initiatives. In the town, vulnerable female heads of household received a government subsidy through a mobile app, becoming an experimental group for this government–private bank collaboration. In an effort to create the first cashless society in Colombia, the bank engaged the entire town and local government to create a service ecosystem, constituted by operant resources.

This study uses a qualitative, ethnographic approach to investigate the experiences of stakeholders in engaging with a mobile banking app. The empirical data is drawn from 34 interviews, representing different layers of this service ecosystem. The study identified and analysed actor engagement behaviours that occurred in the micro-, meso-, macro- and meta-layers of this ecosystem that shaped the perception and usage of mobile payments and digital money for rural consumers.

The study found that simultaneous manifestations of the co-creation and co-destruction of value present in different layers ultimately diminished the value proposition for this digital money system. We shed light on how actor engagement transitions across different layers of the ecosystem and that negative interactions in the meta-layer of the ecosystem can affect perceptions of value in the micro-layer.

This study has contributed to the service literature by integrating epistemological cultural theory into value co-creation and co-destruction construct. In doing so, we provide a broader context for understanding how actor engagement can negatively impact on the value creation process and offer a meaningful contribution to the development of midrange theory of the value creation process.

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

The paper aims to recommend legal and regulatory reforms to better prevent child abuse in childcare institutions in Hong Kong.

A summary of investigation report and news reports are referred to in describing the abuse incidents which occurred in a children’s residential home. Routine Activity Theory (RAT) is used as the framework for identifying the causes. Local and overseas legislation, regulations, case law, and policies are analysed to provide recommendations for reforms.

There are systematic failures such as workload issues, inadequate supervision, and the absence of continuing professional development (CPD) that contributed to the incidents. The regulations governing the operation of childcare centres and criminal laws against child abuse are long overdue for an update in Hong Kong. On the institutional side, this paper recommends enacting regulations that mandate CPD, lower the staff-to-child ratio, and strengthen the Social Welfare Department’s (SWD) supervisory powers over childcare centres. From the criminal law perspective, it is recommended that “reasonable chastisement” be abolished as a defence of corporal punishment, and that there be new offences for failure to report suspected child abuse incidents and causing or allowing the death/serious harm of a child.

The child abuse incidents, occurring in a childcare institution, have drawn wide public concern. Reform is required to protect vulnerable children and regain public confidence.