Per Forsberg

What about operational economics? How international accounting standards neglects social structures and special cultures

This article argues that the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) neglects social structures and the special culture of operational economics. The article refers to an ethnographic study of a family-owned shipping company in Sweden (Forsberg, 2001). Based on an understanding of how the people in this company actually think and work the article suggests that an accounting system suitable for a family-owned shipping company should consider the relevance of operational economics, income smoothening and prevention of speculations.

Testing prices in markets How to charter a tanker

A B S T R A C T ■ This article is written to follow up on a discussion initiated by Callon and Muniesa (2005) who criticized the distinction between pure calculation (assumed in neoclassical economics) and pure judgment (assumed in ethnographic studies). They suggested a third perspective: calculations are performed by technological devices. Furthermore, they call this process ‘the qualification process’ and claim that it brings calculation and judgment together. However, in this third perspective, the meaning of judgment is reduced and has become synonymous with making distinctions. I argue that an understanding of real markets must consider two parallel processes: a ‘calculative process’ and a ‘judgmental process’. In the real market both a ‘calculative process’ and a ‘judgmental process’ involve a process where the buyer and seller ‘test’ different prices. When it comes to the judgmental process storytelling is an indispensable cultural tool. This is demonstrated using field material collected at a tanker chartering firm.

Resistance to financialization

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute with knowledge about how resistance to the neo-liberal agenda is made possible, especially through renewal and reproduction of collective commun ...

Resistance to Financialization : Insights about collective resistance through distancing and persistence from two ethnographic studies

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute with knowledge about how resistance to the neo-liberal agenda is made possible, especially through renewal and reproduction of collective commun ...

How to lock-in workers and capital: the role of accounting in the era of a Swedish textile mill

This article contributes with knowledge about accounting history in Sweden between 1834-1903. It is written from the perspective of new accounting history. As such, it focuses on how the socio-political-economic context affects accounting but also that accounting has important implications. The article focuses especially on what roles accounting played for the industrialisation in Sweden. The first mechanical weaving company in Sweden, the textile mill Rydboholm, is used as an example to illustrate how accounting developed and that accounting had important functions for solving certain problems that existed during the 19th century. The major problems that accounting helped to solve was problems as: lack of money and capital together with the establishments of credit- and production networks. Moreover, accounting did play a crucial role for the industrialisation in Sweden because it made possible to lock-in capital and workers in the company.

How to control, intervene and mediate: the role of accounting in a modern textile company

This article about accounting history in Sweden deals with the period between 1903 and the Second World War. It focuses on how accounting was shaped in a broad social-political-economic situation but also that accounting has crucial social and organisational functions. It makes use of the first mechanical weaving factory in Sweden (the factories of Rydboholm) as an example that illustrates this. During this period did accounting play a crucial role for mediating between different external interest groups and locking-in capital.

Crowding-out and crowding-in of the community principle: the role of accounting from the perspective of cultural theory

In this theoretical article I propose that cultural theory (Douglas, 1987; Thompson et al., 1999; Verweij, 1999; Verweij, 2006) can help us understand the non-intentional effects of accounting. In cultural theory three different ways of organising (hierarchism, individualism and egalitarianism) are supposed to underpin all different cultures and organisations. These different principles complement each other and an organisation that lacks one of the principles is unlikely to sustain. From the background of cultural theory I discuss how different forms of accounting crowd-out or crowd-in different ways of organising. Through the article I make references to one example on organisation in order to illustrate the theoretical discussion.