A comparative analysis of theological and critical perspectives on emancipatory praxis through accounting

This paper examines the insights that the interface between critical theory and different theologies can bring to our understanding of accounting's emancipatory potential. The paper begins with a comparative analysis of critical perspectives and Jewish and Christian theological perspectives on emancipatory praxis, with a particular emphasis on emancipation from spiritual alienation. The theological perspectives are based on the two creation stories in the biblical book of Genesis and what they teach about human relationships, social justice, and spiritual development. The paper then illustrates what a theological education might be like within the context of an accounting or management degree, where the objective is to encourage business students to think reflectively, ethically, and spiritually about themselves, their profession, and other people. Next, the paper considers how alternative accounting reporting and disclosure practices can promote the spiritual development of individual persons and their communities. The conclusion discusses structural constraints that would shape and be shaped by the proposed emancipatory accounting practices, and acknowledges that other spiritual traditions besides Western theology also can be mobilized to promote emancipatory accounting education and practice in a pluralistic society.     

Accountability and transparency in relation to human rights: A critical perspective reflecting upon accounting, corporate responsibility and ways forward in the context of globalisation

In this paper we critically theorise accountability and transparency, and accounting, in relation to human rights. Consistent with our perspective, we articulate human rights as a complex and very important construct. We link human rights to notions of accountability and transparency (and hence to accounting) and elaborate how theoretical debates and developments in the humanities and social sciences refine but do not displace the argument that governance for human rights is a meaningful pursuit and policy. Indeed, they in some ways promote the mobilisation of accounting in the context. We go on to elaborate further how accounting (we especially focus upon corporate accounting and reporting) may come to the service of human rights. Developing our critical perspective more concretely and positively, we reflect, giving consideration to real world happenings and relevant illustrations, upon the interface of accounting, various actors (especially corporations) and human rights in the context of globalisation. And we reflect upon ways forward.     

ATTRACTING AND RETAINING MAORI STUDENTS IN ACCOUNTING: ISSUES,EXPERIENCES AND WAYS FORWARD

The literature of social and educational research reflects the significance that issues of culture and ethnicity have gained in such research. This is evident, for example, in concerns to analyse and redesign social practices and to elaborate a critique of dominant Western institutions. In the research literature upon the accounting focus, evidence of such concerns has been comparatively scarce. While some research has been done@8ifor example, researchers have pointed to the Eurocentric character of accounting and critically analysed ethnic minority experiences of accountancy@8ithere is much more to do. Particularly scarce in the accounting literature have been studies concerned to focus upon accounting from an indigenous cultural perspective or to promote multicultural accounting education. Such a silence is of significance in the light of increasing worldwide concerns to learn from and to protect the cultures of indigenous peoples and to question the universal validity of Western practices, notably such as those of Eurocentric education. In this paper we focus upon Maori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, and critically assess and explore their participation in and experiences of accounting education. We concentrate upon university accounting education which is central to the process of gaining admission into the accountancy profession of Aotearoa New Zealand. We provide a historical and contextual analysis which elaborates upon the oppression and marginalisation of Maori people. The study reflects our concern that, in inquiring into why particular ethnic groups, including indigenous peoples, are under represented and lack influence in particular social activities and occupations, we need to give consideration to the role of cultural as well as socioeconomic factors. And in this respect we need to critically analyse the very institutions and practices of Western accountancy and Western accounting education as forms of insensitive cultural imperialism. These forms can change rather than the culture of peoples. For us, increasing the participation of Maori in accounting education and accounting practice and changing the character of these practices so that they are more reflective of Maori indigenous culture are two dimensions of the struggle for change which can be mutually reinforcing. We are supportive of such change and seek to bring this about in the Eurocentric institutions of Aotearoa New Zealand. Our contention is that a deeper critical analysis of issues of ethnicity in Western society can help to inform a critique of Eurocentric practices and institutions including in the sphere of accounting. In brief, we explore a range of interconnected themes: the complex character of the marginalisation and oppression of Maori; focusing in, the position respecting accounting education and the very practice of accounting; how this relates to ways forward and connects up with wider issues.     

Teaching accounting as a language

This paper explores how a literary turn in accounting education can provide students with the tools to comprehend financial accounting statements. It argues that a key implication of the literary turn in accounting research is that we must, in our classrooms, take seriously the idea of accounting as a language. By exploring what distinguishes accounting from other languages, not only in its grammar and structure but also in the conditions of production of accounting texts, a literary perspective on accounting can empower students to take a critical perspective on accounting, instead of being passive consumers of accounting signs.     

The dialectic of accounting education: from role identity to ego identity

Within the critical accounting literature interest in accounting education appears to be growing (see, for example, Amernic, 1996; Chua, 1996; Davis & Sherman, (1996); Dillard & Tinker, 1996; Galhofer & Haslam, 1996; Neimark, 1996; Paisey & Paisey, 1996; Reiter, 1996). However, as yet the discussion does not appear to be grounded within the well-established critical education literature. Little critical analysis has been provided of the specific ways in which power may operate through accounting education, or the forms that a more critical education might take; or of the theoretical problematic of the dialectical tension that exists between both possibilities (that is between emancipation and domination). Given the significant and perhaps even primary role that social theorists have ascribed to education in the reproduction of social structures, and the maintenance of forms of subordination, this seems surprising (see, for example, Althusser, 1971). This paper draws on some well-established critical education theory in order firstly to explore the hegemonic operation of power within accounting education and secondly to use these insights as a basis for developing some thoughts on what a more critical accounting education might look like in practice.     

Accounting in Babel? Constructing social accounting as a multi-logical performance

All social practices reproduce certain taken-for-granteds about what exists. Constructions of existence (ontology) go together with notions of what can be known of these things (epistemology), and how such knowledge might be produced (methodology)—along with questions of value or ethics. Increasingly, reflective practitioners—whatever their practice—are exploring the assumptions they ‘put to work’ and the conventions they reproduce. Questions are being asked about how to ‘cope’ with change in a postmodern world, and ethical issues are gaining more widespread attention. If we look at these constructions then we often find social practices: (a) give central significance to the presumption of a single real world; (b) centre a knowing subject who should strive to be separate from knowable objects, i.e. people and things that make up the world; (c) a knowing subject who can produce knowledge (about the real world) that is probably true and a matter of fact rather than value (including ethics). Social practices of this sort often produce a right–wrong debate in which one individual or group imposes their ‘facts’ (and values) on others. Further they often do so using claims to greater or better knowledge (e.g. science, facts …) as their justifications.We use the term “relational constructionism” as a summary reference to certain assumptions and arguments that define our “thought style”. They are as follows: fact and value are joined (rather than separate); the knower and the known—self and other—are co-constructed; knowledge is always a social affair—a local–historical–cultural (social) co-construction made in conversation, in other kinds of action, and in the artefacts of human activities (‘frozen’ actions so to speak), and so; multiple inter-actions simultaneously (re)produce multiple local cultures and relations, this said; relations may impose one local reality (be mono-logical) or give space to multiplicity (be multi-logical). In this view, the received view of science is but one (socially constructed) way of world making, as is social constructionism, and different ways have different—and very real—consequences.In this paper, we take our relational constructionist style of thinking to examine differing constructions of foot and mouth disease (FMD)¹ in the UK. We do so in order to highlight the dominant relationship construction. We argue that this could be metaphorised as ‘accounting in Babel’—as multiple competing monologues—many of which remained very local and subordinated by a dominant logic. However, from a relational constructionist point of view, it is also possible to argue that social accounting can be done in a more multi-logical way that gives space to dialogue and multiplicity. In the present (relational constructionist) view, accounting is no longer ‘just’ a question of knowledge and methodology but also a question of value and power. To render accounting practices more ethical they must be more multi-voiced and enable ‘power to’ rather than ‘power over’.     

Developing critical thinking: An examination of contemporary practices in accounting

Employers and professional bodies call for higher education accounting courses to emphasise the importance of critical thinking skills. This study provides an in-depth assessment of how critical thinking is currently taught and assessed across an entire accounting degree. Our study contributes to our understanding of how teaching and assessment can support students in developing their critical thinking. Using a case study approach, we identify resource restraints and disruptions to traditional forms of engagement as key challenges to developing critical thinking skills in accounting education. We conclude with suggestions for teaching practice, such as formative scaffolds and teacher-led discussions.     

Is accounting for sustainability actually accounting for sustainability…and how would we know? An exploration of narratives of organisations and the planet

The emergence of sustainable development as the complex notion through which social and environmental issues must be addressed – whether at policy, personal or organisational levels – has had a growing influence in the accounting literature. In addition to explorations of what sustainability may mean for accounting and finance, we have experienced a growth in both critiques of sustainability reporting (sic) and in experiments and speculations on how accounting for sustainability might advance. This growth – as with social and environmental accounting before it – has very properly attracted critique. One convergent theme in that critique has been a challenge that much of the realist and procedural baggage associated with conventional accounting is no longer apposite when seeking to account for sustainability. What may be required, is a more nuanced understanding of what ‘sustainability’ actually is and how, if at all, it can have any empirical meaning at the level of the organisation. This essay seeks to initiate an auto-critique of accounting for sustainability via an examination of meanings and contradictions in sustainable development which, in turn, leads towards a suggestion for the development of multiple and conditional narratives that whilst no longer realist or totalising, explicitly challenge the hegemonic claims of business movements in the arena of sustainability and sustainable development.     

Expanding the perspective and knowledge of the accounting curriculum and pedagogy in other locations: The case of Mexico

In our analysis of the accounting career and practice in Mexico, we include a comparative examination of the university curriculum, noting how it has changed over time, and we examine the differences between the accounting programs in the public and private higher education systems. We took this approach to investigate recent concerns raised by many academics from the field of accounting, about the ethicality of the accounting practice and the role played by universities in teaching would-be accountants ethics, and how Mexico compares to other countries that are currently being studied in response to Chabrak and Craig's (2012) work. Our perspective and experience with Community Service-Learning as a tool to achieve critical self-reflexivity, foster community engagement, and experiential understanding with principles of social justice, leads us to suggest CSL as another method to help address the valid concerns that have been raised about ethics education in the accounting career.     

OF MESSINESS, SYSTEMS AND SUSTAINABILITY: TOWARDS A MORE SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING

This essay is a personal attempt at a re-visitation and re-consideration of a number of the fundamental questions which underlie accounting and finance but which only rarely receive explicit consideration. Social and environmental accounting has been the principal focus of my research interests since I became an academic and the subject was, indeed, the primary reason I became an academic in the first place. A concern with social and environmental accounting automatically forces one to raise basic questions about (what is conventionally thought of as) accounting and finance—its foundations, its purposes, its assumptions. In trying to answer those questions one comes to see all of accounting and finance in different ways—both in terms of what it assumes about the world and what it can potentially do for the world. This paper seeks to clarify some of the ways in which conventional accounting and finance and social and environmental accounting (and finance) can be in harmony. However, the principle purpose of the paper is to suggest that many of our ghettos, our internecine squabbles and our misunderstandings are trivial when compared with the essential question of what we place at the centre of our teaching and scholarship. At the core of accounting and finance is a truly fundamental conflict between sustainability and modern international financial capitalism. Our choices between these are likely to be a great deal more than matters of methodological nicety or intellectual convenience. Social and environmental accounting (and finance) offer a way to recover a moral and productive accounting and finance that places survival of the species at its very heart.     

An historical perspective on governmental accounting education

This paper presents a senior governmental accounting educator’s perspectives on how governmental accounting education has changed over the past 35 years and what we can expect for the future. Having begun my academic career during the 1970s, a period of turmoil and debate about the deficient state of governmental accounting, I look at how events of this period influenced my personal decision to specialize in governmental accounting education and how those events led to a path of dramatic improvement in governmental accounting standards, practice, and education. Key trends in governmental accounting education are discussed along with major changes in practice guidance over the years that have challenged textbook authors and faculty in staying abreast of change. The paper identifies many governmental accounting educators who have made significant contributions to governmental accounting and auditing policy and encourages current educators to seek ways to participate in the policy-making process. Finally, the paper discusses the future outlook for governmental accounting education and concludes that governmental accounting educators are well positioned to contribute to achieving the recently released recommendations of the Pathways Commission (2012).     

Adding critical accounting voices to migration studies

The field of migration study is continually evolving and frequently controversial, as diverse people cross the globe and as social and economic transformations prevail. Although scholars in many disciplines have actively contributed to migration research, accounting scholars have been less actively engaged, despite migration's use of concepts so closely aligned with accounting: costs, benefits, risk, and control. This paper considers how accounting researchers may contribute to the study of migration, highlighting the potential for critical researchers to re-define terrains of discourse.Migration theories are introduced, illustrating the complexities and interconnectedness of the role of globalisation, poverty, state functioning, and the social sciences. We integrate previous research of accounting, revealing the discipline as part of the language and neoliberal agenda imbued in migration issues, and its participation in co-creating precarious boundaries and myopic concepts defining the debates. We provide a case analysis, specifically illustrating accounting's calculative practices and rhetoric as limiting and obscuring social issues in migration, providing yet another instance of accounting's participation in social controversies.The rhetoric of accounting as merely a technique and the prevailing view of its objectivity are disputed as we reveal accounting's role in creating a simplifying reality, ignoring the complex interdependencies and powerful forces at play in migration arenas. Although much work is to be done in the accounting field to illuminate its role regarding migration issues, we are optimistic that critical researchers can provide expanded ways of thinking and a contribution to the deliberations. The work's originality is contained in its unique framing of migration discourse, revealing the skewed and shadowy assumptions of its traditional discourse, and examining how critical research expands possibilities for promoting social justice in the migration landscape.     

Meeting the evolving corporate reporting needs of government and society: arguments for a deliberative approach to accounting rule making

We review ways in which corporate reporting might be useful for the government's management of the macro economy and for society's needs for more comprehensive reporting of corporate social and environmental performance. We highlight the constitutive as well as the representational nature of corporate reporting and how accounting subtlety impacts the culture and focus of governments, societies and corporations. Prominent examples are the ways accounting encourages financialisation and fails to account for externalities and the environment. While many proposals for the reform of corporate reporting emphasise more standards and rules, we suggest that what is needed instead are different rules, brought about by a more deliberative approach. A move to deliberation, however, requires that accountants highlight the pervasive but often subtle impacts of accounting.     

Critical Accounting Interventions

Starting from prior research on the functioning of intellectuals, the current study examines two questions: first, how can we intervene in social struggles in a manner that takes advantage of our expertise and offers the greatest potential for transforming and improving social practices? and second, how do we, as “intellectuals", judge the effectiveness or success of an intervention, given that the means used to effect change could well have a bearing on our legitimacy, on the very definition of “intellectual", and on our long-term efficiency. Using two case studies, we analyze the functioning of accounting within public policy struggles, and theoretically interrogate the interventions and the resultant outcomes. Although we acknowledge that the specific terrain of struggle varies, insights from these two episodes extend our understandings of accounting’s role within social conflict and perhaps, more importantly, encourage critical accountants to reintegrate the theoretical and praxis components of accounting scholarship through interventions in the public sphere.     

25 Years of Giddens in accounting research: Achievements, limitations and the future

Twenty five years ago, Giddens’ structuration theory (ST) was introduced into accounting research as a reaction to the history-less, apolitical and technical-efficiency focus of traditional functionalist research. A quarter of a century later, this growing stream of research consists of some 65 published papers and has become one of the dominant alternative approaches used to explore accounting as an organizational and social practice. We review this literature based on the following two research questions; (i) what are the major achievements of this literature, and in what respects has it contributed to our understanding of accounting in relation to other alternative streams of accounting research, such as those grounded in critical theory, actor-network theory (ANT), new-institutional sociology (NIS) and practice theory? and; (ii) what are the limitations of the ST strand and, considering these (and its relative strengths), how should it be advanced in the future? Overall, we find that the mobilization of ST as a general ontological framework has generated three major and largely unique contributions, namely; (i) the introduction of a duality perspective; (ii) the conceptualization of accounting as an interwoven totality comprised of structures of signification, domination and legitimation, and; (iii) an ontological basis for theorizing how, when and why socially embedded agents may produce both continuity and change in accounting practices. However, we also conclude that it is difficult to identify a particular and distinctive empirical imprint of the ST literature, and that some of the theory’s ‘competitive advantages’ are far from fully exploited. Based on these identified strengths and weaknesses of the ST perspective, we consider an array of directions for future scholarly effort.     

Islam, nature and accounting: Islamic principles and the notion of accounting for the environment

Islamic principles are suggestive of a variety of implications for governance and accounting. Reflecting upon Islamic principles, we here engage with the notion of accounting for the environment. Drawing from key Islamic texts and relevant prior literature, we elaborate and discuss key Islamic principles of relevance and delineate what they suggest for accounting. Our endeavours here are consistent with a concern to contribute to a critical theoretical project seeking to develop a progressive and emancipatory universalism that is respectful of difference, a project with its accounting implications. In concluding, we point, among other things, to the irony whereby Western transnational corporations have sought to promote their particular brand of corporate social (and environmental) responsibility accounting in Arab countries, variously influenced by Islam, with little to no mention of a notion of accounting for the environment integral to and deeply rooted in Islam.     

Using an historical account book as a teaching tool

Historical account books from the 18th and 19th centuries are valuable historical documents reflecting the activities of individuals many years ago and shedding light on the way they lived. Such books can be used to teach accounting. From our experience, these books serve to motivate students to learn about the basic aspects of the accounting process. Students are curious about how a book of this nature was prepared, what specific purposes it served, and how it is similar to and different from modern account books. Using these books can also foster interdisciplinary instruction, i.e. accounting and history. Both subject areas relate to an account book. Attempting to explain and understand transactions requires some knowledge of the history of the period in which the book was prepared. In this study, specifics are given on the instructional approach we recommend. While a book of this kind can be used in different ways and degrees in a variety of accounting courses including introductory financial, intermediate, and advanced at the undergraduate and graduate levels, we focus in this case study on its use in introductory financial accounting.     

Management accounting as practice

In this paper we outline a distinctive practice theory approach to considering the role of management accounting in the constitution of organizations. Building on [Schatzki, T.R. (2002). The site of the social: a philosophical account of the constitution of social life and change. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press] notion of arrays of activity we emphasise the ways in which organisational members actively reconstitute their management control systems by drawing on them as a shared resource. By tracing the skilful practices through which social actors in a restaurant chain understand and mobilise accounting to contribute in specific ways to what they regard as the objectives of their organisational units, we develop a notion of situated functionality. Situating the interrelationships between technical and interpretive accounting processes in the wider field of organisational practices we elaborate the ways in which management control systems as structures of intentionality both shape and are shaped by shared norms and understandings.     

Focus group methods: Using interactive and nominal groups to explore emerging technology-driven phenomena in accounting and information systems

This paper puts forth arguments for why focus group methods should be used more frequently in accounting and information technology research in order to address emerging technology-driven phenomena in accounting. In this overview of focus group methods and their application to studying accounting and information technology phenomena, we focus on what alternative types of focus group methods may be applied, when such methods are applicable, and what methodological challenges the researcher must address. In examining the methodological challenges that face researchers when using these methods, we demonstrate how these challenges have been addressed in our own research as a way of exemplifying the challenges researchers may face and what compensating strategies researchers might use. Our objective is to highlight when focus groups may be the best method for accounting information systems researchers and demonstrate how they can be used when they are applicable.