The emancipatory potential of extinction accounting: Exploring current practice in integrated reports

This paper adopts a normative approach to develop a dynamic form of corporate reporting designed to deal with the threat posed by mass extinction of species. The proposed reporting framework is intended to show how a type of accounting – which is referred to as extinction accounting – can and should be used to drive positive corporate change and prevent the loss of species. The framework is inspired by both an anthropocentric and deep ecological view on nature and draws on accountancy’s emancipatory potential rather than attempting to find a substitute for current technologies of accounting and accountability. The prior literature on biodiversity and emancipatory accounting is complemented by showing how an innovative form of reporting on a specific environmental issue can be operationalised and used in the short-term to respond to the threats posed by mass extinction.     

Atheoretical macroeconometrics: A critique

The spurious nature of the restrictions used to identify many macroeconometric models has led some researchers to advocate a style of econometric inquiry that is less dependent on prior theoretical restrictions of the sort that were central to the approach of the Cowles Commission. This development, which we call atheoretical macroeconometrics, is summarized and evaluated in the current paper. It is contrasted with an updated version of the Cowles Commission approach. We conclude that while some of the exercises of atheoretical macroeconometrics are valid, those that have attracted the most attention and appear the most innovative-exogeneity testing, impulse response analysis and policy analysis using estimated vector autoregressions - are based on incorrect analysis.     

The greening of Swedish energy policy: A critique

This article discusses Swedish energy policy over the period 1973–1992 with a focus on its current energy objectives. Bans on energy sources are assessed as one of the challenges faced by Sweden in the 1990s. We raise questions about the future consequences of such draconian approaches to energy policy that inhibit societal learning. Bans on any fuel source only serve to handicap the economy and lead to a less flexible and more inefficient energy supply at a greater than necessary cost. With the Swedish economy on the verge of becoming more integrated with the rest of Europe, it is imperative to view its comparative advantage in electricity as the basis for its energy policy rather than the individual fuels that generate that electricity. Our goal has been to synthesize components among existing energy objectives to suggest logical implications for the future.     

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.     

The enactment of management control systems: A critique of Simons

Simon proposes a contingency relationship between a firm's strategy and its management control systems. However, his model underspecifies the relationship between strategic uncertainties and management controls, underplays the recursive impact of management controls on strategy formulation, and ignores the potential influence of managerial characteristics on control system design.     

A short review of the historical critique of usury

Usury - lending at interest or excessive interest - has, according to known records, been practised in various parts of the world for at least four thousand years. During this time, there is substantial evidence of intense criticism by various traditions, institutions and social reformers on moral, ethical, religious and legal grounds. The rationale employed by these wide-ranging critics have included arguments about work ethic, social justice, economic instability, ecological destruction and inter-generational equity. While the contemporary relevance of these largely historical debates is not analysed in detail, the authors contend that their significance is greater than ever before in the context of the modern interest-based global economy.     

社会保障制度改革的一个政策工具:"目标定位"

20世纪70年代以来,西方福利国家普遍经历了深刻的危机并由此进行了全面的改革.在改革的过程中,"目标定位"政策得到了广泛的应用,成为福利国家削减开支的重要政策工具.本文首先分析了目标定位的含义、兴起的背景,进而分析了目标定位的各种措施以及优越性;然后结合一些案例国家的改革情况介绍了目标定位的诸多方法,包括传统方法以及创新的方法,并指出了创新方法的优势;然后从纵向和横向两个方面探讨了目标定位的绩效评估问题;最后对目标定位中存在的问题进行了研究并给出了政策建议.     

Social and solidarity finance: A conceptual approach

An analysis of the social- and solidarity-finance system of relationships, which has characteristics that differ from those of other financial intermediaries, underpins the conceptual approach of this article. Social and solidarity finance constitutes a set of interdependent financial and social relationships, and partnerships between individuals and organisations, that mesh into an organised whole.This article makes use of institutional economics to understand those mechanisms of interaction between individuals, organisations and institutions that are not strictly economic. First, we offer a new conceptual framework on social and solidarity finance from an institutional point of view. Then, based on this framework, we outline the sustainability of alternative finance and its ability to respond to specific entrepreneurship needs. Finally, we present the French situation regarding social and solidarity finance to highlight the main characteristics of alternative finance.     

Social Risk Management: A New Conceptual Framework for Social Protection, and Beyond

This paper proposes a new definition and conceptual framework for Social Protection grounded in Social Risk Management. The concept repositions the traditional areas of Social Protection (labor market intervention, social insurance and social safety nets) in a framework that includes three strategies to deal with risk (prevention, mitigation and coping), three levels of formality of risk management (informal, market-based, public) and many actors (individuals, households, communities, NGOs, governments at various levels and international organizations) against the background of asymmetric information and different types of risk. This expanded view of Social Protection emphasizes the double role of risk management instruments—protecting basic livelihood as well as promoting risk taking. It focuses specifically on the poor since they are the most vulnerable to risk and typically lack appropriate risk management instruments, which constrains them from engaging in riskier but also higher return activities and hence gradually moving out of chronic poverty.     

The dystopia of technoscience: An ecofeminist critique of postmodern reason

This essay addresses postmodern feminist statements on ‘women’ and ‘nature’, as expressed in the influential work of US theorist Donna Haraway and some of her European followers like Braidotti, Bryld and Lykke. It makes a critical reading of epistemological postures adopted by these postmoderns, revealing a number of internal incoherencies. And it finds their substantive analyses as unhelpful to radical political action in the here and now, as it is to utopian prefiguration of a just and sustainable future. The author argues from the perspective of an ‘embodied materialist ecofeminism’ and makes two claims. First, the postmodern preoccupation with methodologies of discourse analysis becomes counterproductive by deflecting attention from activism. Secondly, Haraway's quasi-celebration of capitalist patriarchal technoscience with it iconic cyborg, presents a dystopia that confuses the political focus of feminists, just as an aggressive neoliberal form of globalisation colonises and consumes the support systems of all life on earth.     

Corporate Social Reporting: A Rebuttal of Legitimacy Theory

Various rationales have been advanced to explain the phenomenon of corporate social reporting. Among these has been legitimacy theory which posits that corporate disclosures are made as reactions to environmental factors and in order to legitimise corporate actions. This paper reports the results of an historical analysis of social disclosures in 100 years of annual reporting by a dominant corporation in the Australian mining/manufacturing industry. A variable but significant pattern of social reporting is identified and compared with an earlier study of social reporting by US Steel. The results of this study fail to confirm legitimacy theory as the primary explanation for social reporting in the Australian case.     

社保费改税任重道远

我们正在研究要将目前的社会保障费改为社会保障税。国家发展和改革委员会财政金融司司长徐林2010年8月24日表示,我国社会保障的压力非常大,人口老龄化程度越来越高,养老体制改革还不到位。社会保障费改税有利于建设全国统一的社会保障体系。此番言论颇受关注。联系到今年4月1日,财政部部长谢旭人在《求是》杂志发表文章—     

发展中的社会保障信息化:一个研究综述

随着计算机网络技术的迅速发展,特别是"数字政府"建设的推进,社会保障信息化相关议题开始引起学术界与实务界的关注。文章以CNKI和Web of Science为数据源,利用文献计量法、知识图谱可视化和内容分析法,对国内外社会保障信息化研究现状进行归纳分析。从数据分析的角度探析了国内社会保障信息化研究在年代分布、期刊分布、关键词研究热点、关键词研究前沿及引文情况等方面的现状;从主题内容分析的角度,一方面归纳了国内社会保障信息化的问题与对策、内容与管理、作用与意义,以及人力资源与社会保障信息化等方面的研究状况,另一方面则概述了国外社会保障信息化现状和案例、社会保障信息技术应用等方面的内容。通过对相关文献的系统梳理,从研究内容、研究方法与研究视角等方面分析了国内外社会保障信息化研究的不足之处,并从十个方面展望社会保障信息化未来的研究方向为后续相关研究提供参考和借鉴。     

Demographic Shock and Social Security: A Political Economy Perspective

We assume that individual voters differ not only according to age but also productivity. In the steady state, workers with wages in the intermediate range join the retired persons to form a majority and vote for a positive level of social security. When a shock decreases population growth, entrenched interests can constrain majority voting decisions and prevent reforms in the name of entitlements. We show that from a Rawlsian viewpoint it may be desirable to rely on these entitlements to protect the low wage earners of the transition generations. However, when the possibility of fixing a basic pension is introduced, it constitutes a better instrument than entitlements.     

A critique of the influence of globalization and convergence of accounting standards in Fiji

The globalization of the world's economies has inevitably brought with it moves to establish a single set of financial reporting standards. Prima facie, the formulation and promulgation of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) is concealed behind reified icons of ‘relevance’. This paper adds a new dimension to the international accounting debate by discussing themes of regulation, public and private interests, from a critical perspective. Specifically, this paper examines the reasons for the willingness to accept IFRSs in Fiji. A critical conception of ‘relevance’ and ‘accountability’ is developed to demonstrate how the needs of private interests’ are met in adopting the IFRSs. This paper demonstrates that in this process of convergence, the influence of these private interests – multinational enterprises and large international accounting firms – can lead to a transfer of economic resources in their favour, wherein the public interests are usually ignored. The paper offers suggestions on how public interest might be best served within the current financial reporting system and how, in principle, the needs to report both globally and locally can be reconciled.     

The cry of Sakeena: a post-nationalist critique of violence in South Asia

Violence, both of the state and the non-state, is central to the construction of the national state in South Asia. Both Sadat Hasan Manto and Fakir Alamgir, albeit at different historical conjunctures and through different medium, have critically exposed the horrifying outcome of what is commonly regarded as the birth of the nation. A post-nationalist critique of violence, including feminist perspectives, allows us to see how intricate has been the relationship between alienation, violence and the construction of the nation, nationalism and nationhood. The sooner we take cognizance of this fact the sooner we will be able to transform and go beyond the nation.     

社会救助制度的就业效应:一个文献综述

社会救助制度是保障国民生活的最后一道防线,其对救助对象就业的影响既关系到基本的公平正义,也到关系到制度的可持续发展。本文从四个方面综述了国内外学者的相关研究成果:以"低保"为代表的现金转移支付项目的就业效应、专项救助项目的就业效应、社会救助制度就业效应的作用机理以及基于就业促进视角优化社会救助制度的对策。综述表明,受制度差异、样本区域等客观因素以及研究设计、研究方法等技术因素的影响,已有研究结论尚不统一。中国有必要在借鉴国外文献研究思路和方法的基础上,加强对社会救助制度就业效应的本土化研究,重点在研究内容、研究视角和研究方法等方面有所突破。