Nick Barter

Natural capital: dollars and cents/dollars and sense

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss natural capital by offering some viewpoints on the economic rationality facilitated by the concept. The paper highlights the likely performativity of the concept and, ultimately, how this may impact us. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on existing literature to develop its arguments. Findings – The concept of natural capital may be necessary and accepted, but it is not benign and it facilitates the expansion of economic rationality to new areas. The paper uses some examples to draw out some potential implications of economic rationality that the concept of natural capital may facilitate that are morally dubious. Research limitations/implications – This paper is a cautionary note to those who might use the concept of natural capital and offers considerations through the use of examples. Practical implications – The practical implications of this paper are that users of capitals or natural capital frameworks should consider all the potential outcomes of app...

Actor-Network Theory: A Briefing Note and Possibilities for Social and Environmental Accounting Research

Actor-network theory (ANT) has been increasingly utilised within the accounting and management literature (Justesen and Mouritsen, 2011) and is argued to be useful because it includes both the human and the non-human in its analytical frame. ANT bypasses a nature/society dualism and, as such, it may help to develop organisational theories that can promote ecologically and socially sustainable development (Gladwin et al., 1995). This article outlines the central commitments of ANT, its language, how it has been applied and its critiques. The article then discusses how ANT may contribute to social and environmental accounting research and the examination of what is social and what is environment. As such, this paper is an ANT ‘primer’ which aims to support social and environmental accountants in the exploration of new directions and the enabling of more ecologically and socially sustainable practices to come forward.

Factor 4/10/20/130: A briefing note

t a conference recently a speaker was advocating that the efficiency of automobiles could be improved by a factor of 20 and, by implication, if this was achieved then environmental limits would not be breached. This short note seeks to respond to such a proposition and proceeds along three lines. First, exactly what factor 20 entails is outlined. Second, an evaluation of whether or not factor 20 will be sufficient given our environmental challenges will be explored. Finally, we will suggest that factors of efficiency (regardless of whether then are sufficiently large given our environmental challenges) miss important secondary questions of equity, among other things.

Articles review - `Cargo cult science and the death of politics: A critical review of social and environmental accounting research’

While I am probably biased towards papers of this kind, I found this to be one of the most interesting and well-presented analyses of corporate environmental reporting that I have read in a while. Forming part of Laine’s PhD investigation into sustainable development and environmental reporting in the Finnish context, this particular paper is a longitudinal analysis (covering 34 years) of environmental disclosures by a Finnish chemical company. Taking a strategic view of language and reporting, and drawing on new institutional sociology, Laine states his aim is to ‘shed further light on how corporate environmental disclosures are used to respond to institutional pressures stemming from the social context’ (p.1029). In essence five time periods where the case company applies a different rhetorical approach are identified. These periods are examined by comparing them to transitions in the social and institutional context. What I like about this paper is the effective way in which the detail of the text and context is presented and discussed. Laine provides a good balance between description and analysis and the reader is provided with plenty of insight into the text, context, and the particular interpretations argued. It is for these reasons that concern with subjectivity and researcher position is perhaps overemphasised in the paper. The addition of a research assistant who analyses the texts subsequent to the initial interpretation and writing up, in what appears to be an exercise to reduce the effects of researcher bias, is arguably unnecessary – and somewhat redundant given it is unclear how this process influenced the findings. A somewhat familiar legitimacy conclusion is reached that ‘environmental disclosures are used as rhetorical devices in responding to social and institutional pressures so that the organisation would appear to conform to social expectations’ (p.1048). Importantly, however, what the study does demonstrate is that social context should not be underestimated and that texts need to be considered in context, perhaps obvious, but often forgotten in reporting studies and certainly in many content analyses. Laine also identifies fruitful areas for future research which are likely to keep him busy and are worth considering for researchers interested in this area. (Helen Tregidga, Auckland University of Technology)

Two snapshots reinforcing systemic thinking and responsibility

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the concept of sustainable development through the lens of two United Nations (UN) publications, Our Common Future (1987) and the 25-year update Resilient People: Resilient Planet (2012). The analysis attempts to highlight how sustainable development requires a systemic understanding and this in turn necessitates an imperative of responsibility. To reinforce its case, the paper highlights how sustainable development has never been about saving the environment and to think so is naive. In the final analysis, the paper outlines how a systemic understanding is a key concern for organisational leaders and in turn a responsible understanding of humanitys entwinement with, rather than separation from, all that surrounds us. Design/methodology/approach – This paper is a discussion paper that weaves together existing literature. Findings – The aim of the paper is to reinforce systemic thinking and an imperative of responsibility. Practical implications – The arguments offered...

Making the human economy more tolerable: Organisations that put the environment/sustainability first

Abstract This essay draws upon a recent polemic by Johnson in the September 2008 edition of SEAJ ’Sustainability and Life: How long can the earth tolerate the human economy?’ This essay briefly reviews Johnsons polemic and challenges his equating a business to a natural living system. From there using Johnsons polemic and his views as a leaping off point, research findings from an exploratory study with organisations that have environmental/ sustainability focused missions are presented. These findings support some of Johnsons views regarding restraint and that a sustainable future will not be populated with publicly traded corporations. However, it also adds to them by exposing how the organisations interviewed operate a balancing act of mission and money, with money being subservient, but a necessary means to an end. The essay closes with a view that the researched organisations represent a ‘future normal’.

A review of “A New Vision of Value” – old wine, new bottle

Purpose This paper is a review of KPMG’s true value methodology. It highlights how a positive for the methodology is its advance of a systemic perspective, with the challenge being its furthering of an agenda of corporate centricity, where money is the mediator for societal decisions. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws on existing literature to develop its arguments. Findings The paper highlights how the true value methodology has merit for furthering a move towards the embrace of a more systemic thinking by business leaders; for example, how organisations are nested in society, not separate from society. However, the methodology is a cause for concern, because, for “true value” (ibid, p. 3) to be identified, albeit the notion of true value is one that stuns with its hubris, there is a need to monetise all exchanges and have corporations make societal well-being decisions based on monetary calculations as opposed to moral or ethical considerations. Thus, the methodology is advancing a corporate centric and narrowly defined perspective on what constitutes societal progress. Research limitations/implications This paper is a review of the methodology with some critique and implications for management, leadership and culture discussed. Practical implications The arguments presented highlight how the methodology furthers a particular perspective, and thus it should, like all tools, be used with an understanding of its limitations. Social implications A key social implication brought forward in the paper is a corporate-centric perspective on societal progress. This corporate-centric perspective ensures that although a more systemic perspective is taken, society is viewed as a little more than a servant of the corporation. Originality/value In drawing on existing literature, the originality lies in the combination of arguments brought together to realise the central claims.

Strategy Textbooks and the Environment Construct Are the Texts Enabling Strategists to Realize Sustainable Outcomes

A central claim within the sustainable development literature is that realizing sustainable outcomes requires a move away from a conceptualization of the environment as a separate, bounded, independently given entity. In this article, the conceptualization of the environment within best-selling strategy textbooks in the United Kingdom and Australia in 2011 is reviewed. The article focuses on strategy textbooks as it is argued that corporate strategists are key actors in the realization of sustainable outcomes, and that the constructs those individuals may learn from texts are potentially key to the realization of sustainable outcomes. The findings show that the constructs in the textbooks offer a sclerotic, dehumanized view of the environment that is partitioned into external and internal categories by an organizational boundary—a limitation, it is argued, that will not foster sustainable outcomes.

Understandings of Accountability: An Autoethnographic Account Using Metaphor

that as a result of the inclusion of these climate change indicators in the performance framework, local authorities have a greater awareness of climate change matters. However, the local performance framework is still perceived as a ‘narrow, bureaucratic procedure focussed on the legitimising of decisions and more easily quantified immediate and intermediate outcomes’ (p. 1112). It is therefore unclear whether the measurement of such mitigation and adaptation indicators will result in additional climate change actions. By introducing the case of LAAs in England, this empirically rich article sheds light on concerns about the NPM approach to local climate change performance measurement and management. Moreover, the paper demonstrates that difficulties are involved in truly applying ‘local accountabilities’ within a performance framework that is centrally designed and imposed. Overall, Cooper and Pearce’s paper represents a valuable starting point for further research on accounting and accountability in the public sector, and will enable researchers to reflect about the role of accounting in changing actions, and how to enhance local and central accountability.

The Perception of the Environment: Essays on Livelihood, Dwelling and Skill

This Perception of the Environment 2011 version is a reissue and ten-year-on update of the original publication. The book is a collection of essays by Professor Tim Ingold, an anthropologist based at the University of Aberdeen. The key difference between this reissue and the original is that this edition contains an additional new preface. In one sentence, the ‘fundamental postulate of the book is how we understand everything relationally as a movement along a way of life’ (p. xv). This postulate also captures how this book will either work or not work for the reader, depending upon how that reader understands their world. To explain and develop: the central claim of the essays in the book is: