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Effects of actor‐network theory in accounting research

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss how Bruno Latours version of actor‐network theory has influenced accounting research. It also seeks to show that Latours writings contain unexplored potential that may inspire future accounting research.Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes the form of a critical literature review and discussion.Findings – Since the early 1990s, actor‐network theory, particularly the work of Bruno Latour, has inspired accounting researchers and led to a number of innovative studies of accounting phenomena. In particular, Latours book, Science in Action, has been the primary source of inspiration for accounting research. This means that there is unexplored potential in Latours more recent writings which may lead to further inspiration and research in the field of accounting.Research limitations/implications – The paper reviews only a few of the relatively large number of accounting papers that apply actor‐network theory. A different sample might have given a somewhat differe...

The triple visual: Translations between photographs, 3‐D visualizations and calculations

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze relations among different kinds of visualization in annual reports and to trace their interaction with activities in marketing and sales, in design and planning, and in operations. For this purpose it is intended to produce insight into the referents that make up a particular image found in the annual report: the 3-D visualization. Design/methodology/approach - It is a case study of a firm that uses different kinds of visualization in many parts of its activities. The case study is based on different kinds of empirical data, such as annual reports, interviews and field observations. This allows a better understanding of relations and translation between visualization and organizational practices. The paper draws on theoretical work on photography and 3-D visualizations and is inspired by the actor-network theory approach in its analysis of how various kinds of visualizations interact. Findings - It is suggested that visualization is important in all aspects of the firms activities such as accounting, communication, selling, planning and operations. It is shown how the visualizations interact with one another and are superimposed on one another to develop even stronger modes of reporting in the annual report and stronger coordination towards the market, production and operations. Visualizations in annual reports are not merely window dressing but also their traces and referents have to be found elsewhere than in the financial reporting system. Research limitations/implications - This is a single case study, and more cases need to be analyzed to understand the complexities of interactions between visualizations. Originality/value - The paper produces insight into the referents that make up a particular image found in the annual report: the 3-D visualization.

Performance Auditing and the Narrating of a New Auditee Identity

This paper analyzes how performance auditing affects the auditee in different and sometimes unexpected ways. On the basis of a detailed case study of the Danish Ministry of Transports encounter with performance auditing we argue that performance audit is a practice that generates multiple effects and that some of these effects can be characterized as a reconfiguration of the organizational identity of the auditee. In this process, accountabilities are reformulated and reallocated which sometimes lead to ‘blame games’ and strong feelings of discomfort. We draw on actor-network theory and a narrative approach to study how performance audit reports produce narratives that picture new possible identities that the auditee in question must take into consideration. We argue that auditee identities are partly shaped by relations to ‘significant others’, such as the National Audit Office, the politicians and the press who all give accounts of who the Ministry is and ought to be. Furthermore, we argue that accounting and management information systems are enrolled as important ‘nonhuman’ actors that enable the suggested identity positions.

Project temporalities: how frogs can become stakeholders

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how animals can become stakeholders in interaction with project management technologies and what happens with project temporalities when new and surprising stakeholders become part of a project and a recognized matter of concern to be taken into account.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a qualitative case study of a project in the building industry. The authors use actor‐network theory (ANT) to analyze the emergence of animal stakeholders, stakes and temporalities.Findings – The study shows how project temporalities can multiply in interaction with project management technologies and how conventional linear conceptions of project time may be contested with the emergence of new non‐human stakeholders and temporalities.Research limitations/implications – The study draws on ANT to show how animals can become stakeholders during the project. Other approaches to animal stakeholders may provide other valuable insights.Practical implications – R...

Organizing space and time through relational human–animal boundary work: Exclusion, invitation and disturbance

In this article, we examine the role that animals play within human organizational boundary work. In so doing, we challenge the latent anthropocentricism in many, if not most, theories of organization that locate animal agencies outside the boundary work that is said to constitute organizing. In developing this argument, we draw together diverse strands of work mobilizing Actor–Network Theory that engage the entanglement of human/nonhuman agencies. In bringing this work together, we suggest humans may organize, even manage, by conducting relational boundary work with animal agencies, spacings and timings. Our argument is empirically illustrated and theoretically developed across two cases of the spacings and timings of construction project organizations—an infrastructure project in the United Kingdom and a housing development in Scandinavia. Construction projects are well-known for their tightly managed linear timings and for producing the built spaces that separate humans and animals. Three concepts—Invitation, Exclusion and Disturbance—are offered to help apprehend how such organizings of space and time are themselves dependent upon entanglements between human and animal agencies. We conclude by suggesting that animals should not be negatively constituted as an ‘Other’ to human organizing, or indeed management, but rather acknowledged as sometimes constituting human capacities to organize, even managerially control, space and time.

Building with wildlife: project geographies and cosmopolitics in infrastructure construction

Across many construction projects, and especially infrastructure projects, efforts to mitigate potential loss of biodiversity and habitat are significant concerns, and at times politically controversial. And yet, thus far, very little research has addressed the interplay of humans and animals within construction projects. Instead those interested in the politics and ethics of human–animal relations, or animal studies, have arguably focused far more on more stable and contained sites, whether organizations like zoos, farms or laboratories, or other places like homes and parks. These largely ethnographic studies inevitably perhaps downplay the unplanned, unexpected and highly politically and ethically charged, collision of hitherto rather separate human and animal geographies. Yet it is often within such colliding spaces, where animal geographies are unexpectedly found at the heart of human projects, that we formulate our respect and response to both animals and indeed other humans. We develop an examination of such encounters, with conceptual reference to actor-network theory, and documented empirically through case studies of two infrastructure projects; the findings of our research are relevant to both construction project management and future animal studies.

Counting to zero: accounting for a green building

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine how a particular form of environmental accounting, energy accounting, is negotiated in practice and how energy accounting may act as a productive organizing device in organizational contexts. Energy accounting is considered as performative in organizational practices rather than as a representation of resource use. Design/methodology/approach - This paper is based on a longitudinal case study of the design phase in a construction project. Data collection entailed observational and document studies as well as interviews with those involved in the design processes. This paper draws on actor-network theory, notably the notions of framing and overflowing, in analyzing the role of energy accounting in design processes and in affecting organizational practice. Findings - The paper provides several insights regarding energy accounting in the making, energy accounting’s performative role in enacting possible futures, the narrative importance of numbers, and the entangled nature of designing, accounting and organizing practices. The findings demonstrate the strong links between accounting and organizing. Originality/value - This paper adds to the extant literature on environmental accounting by directing attention to how such accounting practices contribute to forming rather than just informing management decisions. By focusing on how the calculative practices of making such accounts mediate ideas and help assemble new entities, this paper provides useful insights into the performative role of environmental accounting.