Lennart Nørreklit

Towards a paradigmatic foundation for accounting practice

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework (pragmatic constructivism) for a new paradigm for accounting practice. The paradigmatic base of practice is an important element in explaining, understanding, justifying and defending practice. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is designed to argue the case for the use of pragmatic constructivism as a basis for the development of a paradigmatic foundation of accounting practice. To achieve this, pragmatic constructivism is explained and its application to accounting is illustrated and contrasted with the traditional paradigm of realism. Findings - The analysis shows how the use of a less reductionist paradigm than realism can assist accountants both in the creation of a rationale and a defence for practice. Research limitations/implications - The analysis is exploratory in the sense that a new paradigmatic framework is outlined and used to illustrate its potential to develop a paradigm for practice. The creation of a full practice paradigm for accounting is beyond the scope of one paper. Hence this analysis should be viewed as only a first step towards developing a paradigm of accounting practice. Originality/value - The proposal of pragmatic constructivism for this purpose is novel to the accounting literature. The value of its application lies in its potential to explain and defend accounting practice.

Understanding practice generalisation - Opening the research/practice gap

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to enhance the relationship between research and practice. It addresses the question: How can practitioners’ use of generalisations be understood, with a view towards producing research-based generalisations that facilitate use in practice? Design/methodology/approach Language games are used to explore generalisation in practice, and the framework of pragmatic constructivism is adopted to characterise the generation of practice generalisation. Findings Practice is conceptualised as a complex set of clusters of organised actions run by a set of applied generalisations and driven by human intentions. Practice also encompasses reflective activities that aim to create the generalisations and reflect them into the specific circumstances to create functioning practice. Generalisations depend on underlying concepts. The formation and structure of concepts is explored and used to create the construction and use of different types of generalisation. Generalisations function as cognitive building blocks in constructing strings of interconnected functioning activities. Managers make their own functioning generalisations that, however, do not satisfy the research criteria for acceptable generalisations. The research/practice gap is shaped by the very different language games played. Research limitations/implications If research is to be useful to practice, the generalisations produced must methodologically articulate the types of generalisation that pervade the methods with which practitioners construct functioning activities. Further research has to give more insight into such processes. Originality/value The paper contributes insight into both the generalisation debate and the research/practice gap debate.

Paradigms and pragmatic constructivism: a reply

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide a response to a comment written by Richard Laughlin on a previous paper by the authors, which appeared in Design/methodology/approach - The paper addresses three issues central to the analysis of the comment on their past paper. Findings - In addressing each of the issues in turn the authors clarify their analysis. Originality/value - The paper provides an argument for the development of a paradigm for accounting practice derived from the use of pragmatic constructivism.

Pragmatics of Learning and Participation – a constructivist perspective

Dieser Beitrag analysiert Lernprozesse aus einer pragmatisch-konstruktivistischen Perspektive. Zentral ist das wirklichkeitskonstituierende Beziehungsgefuge ‘Person-Welt’, dem vier Dimensionen zu eigen sind: die empirisch-faktische, die reflexiv-modale, die axiologische Werte-Dimension und die kommunikative Dimension. Das zentrale wirklichkeitskonstituierende Prinzip ist die Integration dieser Dimensionen, die den Erfolg der Handlungen des/der Lehrers/Lehrerin sowie des/der Schulers/Schulerin ermoglicht. In diesem Beitrag wird die Partizipation als ein durchgehendes Prinzip verstanden, teils als Partizipation als Teilnahme in Lernprozessen und teils als Partizipation in einer ubergeordneten sozialen Praxis. Die Lehrer_innen-Schuler_innen-Relation wird als eine rational basierte Co-Authorship-Beziehung analysiert. Der Lernzyklus wird dabei als Wechselwirkung zwischen kreativen und beurteilenden Prozesse verstanden: Es ist relevant, die Bewertungsfahigkeiten der Schuler_innen auszubilden. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden dysfunktionale Lernpraktiken als Effekte problematischer gesellschaftlicher Prozesse verstanden. Diese dysfunktionalen Lernpraktiken werden mit einem epistemologisch fundierten Modell pragmatischer Konstruktionsverfahren kontrastiert. Diese pragmatisch konstruktvistischen Lernpraktiken ermoglichen auch ein differenziert-revflexives Verhaltnis zu den problematischen gesellschaftlichen Prozessen, die dysfunktionales Lernen mit effektuieren.