Teri Shearer

Ethics and accountability: from the for-itself to the for-the-other

Abstract Expanding global markets have resulted in renewed concern with accountability by transnational corporations and other economic agents. Reflections on economic accountability, however, often inadequately theorize necessary ethical presuppositions regarding the moral status of economic collectivities, including the scope of the moral community and the good that this community seeks. This essay addresses these ethical considerations. Taking as my starting point Schweikers [Schweiker, W. (1993). Accounting for ourselves: accounting practice and the disclosure of ethics. Accounting Organizations and Society, 18(2/3), 231–252] claim that economic entities are properly accountable to a wider scope of good than their own by virtue of the accounts that accountants render of such entities, I argue that the discourse in terms of which the accounts are rendered serves to negate the very relation of obligation from which this accountability derives. Specifically, I argue that the discourse of neoclassical economics that informs accounting practice constructs the identity of the accountable entity such that it is obligated to pursue only its own good. Consequently, extant accounting practices are inadequate to meet the demands for accountability that are legitimately entailed by the act of rendering an account. I explore the implications of this conclusion for understanding economic accountability and related social accounting practices, and I propose the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas to establish a broader accountability on the part of economic entities.

Accounting as simulacrum and hyperreality: perspectives on income and capital

This paper draws on two independent strands of literature—Baudrillard’s orders-of-simulacra theoretic and financial accounting theory—to investigate the ontological status of information in accounting reports. It draws on Baudrillard’s concepts of simulacra, hyperreality and implosion to trace the historical transformations of the accounting signs of income and capital from Sumerian times to the present. It posits that accounting today no longer refers to any objective reality but instead circulates in a ‘‘hyperreality’’ of self-referential models. The paper then examines this conclusion from the viewpoint of recent clean surplus model research and argues that the distinction between income and capital is arbitrary and irrelevant provided the measurement process satisfies the clean surplus relation. Although accounting is arbitrary and hyperreal, it does impart a sense of exogeniety and predictability, particularly through the income calculation. Therefore, it can be relied on for decisions that do have real, material and social consequences. The paper ends with some implications of Baudrillard’s theoretic for accounting, reflections on accounting’s implications for Baudrillard’s theoretic and suggestions for future research. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Accounting in other wor(l)ds: A feminism without reserve

Abstract Feminist theory offers a rich array of discourses of value in reflection upon the shape and character of accounting theory and accounting practices. This essay has the dual purpose of broadening the available field of feminist discourse for accounting and demonstrating the relevance of one particular feminist theorist (Luce Irigaray) to accounting. In particular, we appropriate Irigarays feminist deconstruction of Freudian and Lacanian notions of sexual difference in order to similarly deconstruct some dominant notions of accountings relation to value, to subjectivity, to intersubjectivity and to sexuality. What emerges is a disfiguration of accounting as an embodied practice and an appeal for quite speculative refigurations consistent with Irigarays notion of the feminine imaginary, a pre-discursive space of possible difference. Such accounting imaginaries raise new questions about accountings relation to value, to subjectivity, to intersubjectivity and to sexuality.

Truth and the Evolution of the Professions: A Comparative Study of "Truth in Advertising" and "True and Fair" Financial Statements in North America during the Progressive Era

Both advertisers and auditors wrestled with the truth of their text during the Progressive Era (1880-1940). Although in North America, advertisers adopted “truth in advertising” as a theme, auditors rejected “true and fair” as a description of financial statements. Auditors instead adopted the weaker statement that financial statements were “consistent with accepted accounting principles.” It is paradoxical that auditors compared with advertisers made the greatest progress toward professionalization during this era. This article documents debates about the concept of “truth” in each profession during the Progressive Era and examines the professional and legal consequences of each profession’s engagement with truth.