Sonja Gallhofer

The emancipatory potential of online reporting: The case of counter accounting

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to elaborate upon the notion of counter accounting, to assess the potentiality of online reports for counter accounting and hence for counter accountings emancipatory potential as online reporting, to assess the extent to which this potential is being realised and to suggest ways forward from a critical perspective. Design/methodology/approach – There are several components to a critical interpretive analysis: critical evaluative analysis, informed to some extent by prior literature in diverse fields; web survey; questionnaire survey; case study. Findings – Web-based counter accounting may be understood as having emancipatory potential, some of which is being realised in practice. Not all the positive potential is, however, being realised as one might hope: things that might properly be done are not always being done. And there are threats to progress in the future. Originality/value – Clarification of a notion of counter accounting incorporating the activity of groups such as pressure groups and NGOs; rare study into practices and opinions in this context through a critical evaluative lens.

The Direction of Green Accounting Policy: Critical Reflections

Believes that green accounting should be rendered open and accountable and be properly subject to a democratic process to avoid shrouding it in a mystifying expertise. Offers a timely and substantive contribution to the debate about how green accounting might be regulated. Believes the accounting profession will stop some distance short of recommending a substantive interventionist regulation. Feels that a voluntarist and market‐based stance is likely to be advocated or preferred. Makes out the case for a substantive interventionist form of regulation and points to the need in practice for something better than the status quo. Seeks to justify an interventionist stance in terms consistent with critical theory.

The aura of accounting in the context of a crisis: Germany and the first world war

Accounting reports have been depicted in the literature as ideological, conflict-resolving practices in capitalistic society. Employing insights from critical theory, this theme is developed in the present analysis through a theorizing of the conflict-enhancing potential of accounting, particularly in a crisis situation. Accounting is understood to possess an aura in the context of the hegemony of capitalist society which, on its transformation, can engender consequences disturbing rather than stabilizing for a prevalent capitalistic order. An illustration is provided through an analysis of developments in Germany up to the aftermath of the First World War. The awareness created by the theoretical analysis hopefully serves to enhance the social analysis of accounting.

Accounting and Emancipation: Some Critical Interventions

1. Accounting and Emancipation: Developing and Promoting an Alignment2. Jeremy Bentham, Accountant: A Radical Vision of an Emancipatory Modern Accounting3. Accounting and Emancipatory Practice: The Mobilising of Accounting by Socialist Agitators of the Late Nineteenth Century4. Is Social Accounting the Soul of Justice? Towards a Critical Appreciation of Emancipatory Intent5. Epilogue: Accounting, Emancipation and Praxis Today

Gender and accountancy: some evidence from the UK

There is now the well-publicized and welcome view that the accountancy profession must change to accommodate the needs of the increasing numbers of women entering its ranks. This research provides the first quantitative assessment of womens participation rates in the UK profession. These data are placed within the context of current theoretical and policy debates on gender in the business professions. We find that the dramatic quantitative changes are not, as yet, accompanied by expected gender transformations of the professions hierarchy. Standard explanations for this are analysed with reference to the evolving critical theory literature in accounting.

Islam, nature and accounting: Islamic principles and the notion of accounting for the environment

Abstract Islamic principles are suggestive of a variety of implications for governance and accounting. Reflecting upon Islamic principles, we here engage with the notion of accounting for the environment. Drawing from key Islamic texts and relevant prior literature, we elaborate and discuss key Islamic principles of relevance and delineate what they suggest for accounting. Our endeavours here are consistent with a concern to contribute to a critical theoretical project seeking to develop a progressive and emancipatory universalism that is respectful of difference, a project with its accounting implications. In concluding, we point, among other things, to the irony whereby Western transnational corporations have sought to promote their particular brand of corporate social (and environmental) responsibility accounting in Arab countries, variously influenced by Islam, with little to no mention of a notion of accounting for the environment integral to and deeply rooted in Islam.

Developing Environmental Accounting: Insights from Indigenous Cultures

The view is taken that the study of diverse cultures can contribute to the development of environmental accounting and reporting. The focus is upon seeking to articulate insights from three indigenous cultures: the Australian Aboriginal, the Maori and the Native American. These cultures, alive today, provide relevant insights for those concerned with challenging mainstream and Western practices and seeking to develop alternatives. Attention is focused on these insights and it is hoped that further research will be stimulated.

Maintaining the empire: Maori women's experiences in the accountancy profession

This paper is concerned to articulate the experiences of Maori women in the accountancy profession of Aotearoa/New Zealand. It seeks to give Maori women accountants a ‘voice’, listen to their ‘stories’ and to offer some insights into the continuing impact of Aotearoa/New Zealand’s imperialist history in shaping their experiences. In doing so, our study contributes to an understanding of how the processes of colonisation within the context of the accountancy profession continue to impact on these women’s lives in particular, and Maori culture in general. We contend that the accountancy profession and its organisations need to acknowledge and begin to listen to Maori women’s experiences in order to address their concerns by working with Maori women. We also suggest that unless effective policies and strategies are developed to address the needs of Maori women, the similar needs of Maori clients might also not be met.

Introduction: accounting and indigenous peoples

The paper draws attention to the potential of some strands of postmodern and related work for stimulating and furthering research into accounting and indigenous cultures and peoples. We overview some key areas of interest, showing their interface with accounting in general and with the papers published in this special issue in particular. We end our elaborations with suggestions for further research.

Accounting and liberation theology: Some insights for the project of emancipatory accounting

Critical social analysis seeks, amongst other things, to delineate and foster more emancipatory types of discipline and practice. In so doing, it appropriately turns to and can come to be informed and influenced by a broad range of subject areas and empirical focuses, including some that substantially parallel its own emancipatory project. The concern of this article is to explore the case of liberation theology as a social discipline and practice, including as a practice attending to the spiritual and theological. The articles intervention is consistent with the inspirational and insightful character of the theological and reflection upon religious beliefs and values. The concern is to reflect upon the possibilities and potentialities of analysis for accounting. The article explores the sense in which a review of liberation theology can provide critical researchers concerned to locate and promote a more emancipatory accounting with new insights and inspiration.