The cosmology of accounting in mid 19th-century Thailand

In recent years it has been increasingly recognised that accounting cannot be fully understood without an appreciation of the social and political contexts in which it operates. Religious values and ethical codes form important aspects of the social and political frameworks of most societies. Using the social theory of Marx, Weber, Foucault and Durkheim, accounting researchers have debated the ways and extent to which accounting has been influenced by religion. By analyzing the indigenous accounts of mid 19th-century Siam/Thailand, this article contributes to this debate by demonstrating how accounting was determined by the interaction of socio-religious, economic and political practice. Moreover, it also illustrates how in turn the construction of accounting was constitutive of the Siamese economy, social structure, political governance, and wider Buddhist cosmology. In doing so, this article elaborates an indigenous model of accounting as an alternative to definitions in Marxist, Weberian and other western analytical terms.     

Attitudes to the development and implementation of social and environmental accounting in Thailand

Motivated and shaped by a concern to realise the potentiality of accounting communication in relation to social and environmental issues in Thailand, this paper evaluates perceptions of current accounting as well as attitudes to social and environmental accounting among Thai accounting professionals. Making use of empirical data generated by questionnaire study and interviews, this paper aims to shed more light on the development and implementation of social and environmental accounting in Thailand. It argues that any change of accounting in future is likely to involve a change in the nature of the Thai accounting profession itself. The paper suggests ways in which the future development of social and environmental accounting practice might be given further impetus in the Thai context.