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Syria, prior to the outbreak of extreme violence in 2011, was seeking increased economic liberalisation and aspiring to gain a larger stake in the global economy after a long period of isolation and animosity with the West. The authors elaborate, with critical insight, on how, before the violent events of more recent times, Syrian accountants were mobilising debates and shaping their professional identity vis-a-vis the new role they envisaged for the accountancy profession in this era of globalisation. Future research possibilities are considered, including reflecting in this context on the terrible and tragic events impacting Syria in recent times.

This study offers an in-depth contextualisation and critical analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting embedded in the rich context of Egypt’s late Mubarak era. It responds to calls for theoretically informed research into CSR reporting in diverse, including less developed country and historical, contexts. The study is informed by a critical theoretical, poststructuralist and post-Marxist reading of accounting (including CSR reporting) (see Gallhofer & Haslam, 2003, 2019; Brown, 2009, 2017; Dillard & Brown, 2012; Brown & Dillard, 2013; Gallhofer, Haslam, & Yonekura, 2015). Notably, the analysis draws from Gallhofer and Haslam (2019) understanding of accounting as a mix of emancipatory and repressive dimensions and as a dynamic practice that can become, overall, more (or less) emancipatory in shifting contexts. The study explores emancipatory and repressive actualities and potentialities of CSR reporting, including instances reflecting valued particularity, in the dynamics of Egypt’s late Mubarak era, a multi-faceted, conflict-ridden, context reflecting forces of globalisation/globalism and technological change. Pursuing this, the study analyses material garnered via in-depth interviews (around perceptions of and attitudes towards CSR reporting) of key constituencies in the context. The study yields insights in terms of critical understanding and praxis, as envisaged in critical theorising.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore perceptions and lived experiences of Sierra Leonean chartered and aspiring accountants, vis-à-vis their professional identity with a particular focus on two elements of postcolonial theory, hybridity and diaspora. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative methodological framework was employed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants about their perceptions of their professional identity and their professional experiences both within and outside Sierra Leone. Findings The current professionalisation process is conceptualised as a postcolonial third space where hybrid professional accountants are constructed. Professional hybridity blurs the local/global praxis being positioned as both local and global accountants. Participants experience difficulty “fitting into” the local accountancy context as a consequence of their hybridisation. As such, a diaspora effect is induced which often culminates in emigration to advanced countries. The paper concludes that although the current model engenders emancipatory social movements for individuals through hybridity and diaspora, it is nonetheless counterproductive for Sierra Leone’s economic development and the local profession in particular. Research limitations/implications This study has significant implications for understanding how the intervention of global professional bodies in developing countries shapes the professionalisation process as well as perceptions and lived experiences of chartered and aspiring accountants in these countries. Originality/value While extant literature implicates the legacies of colonialism/imperialism on the institutional development of accountancy (represented by recognised professional bodies), this paper employs the critical lens of postcolonial theory to conceptualise the lived experiences of individuals who are directly impacted by such institutional arrangements.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to outline an ecofeminist lens for the analysis of accounting, which is applied to: first, the critique of corporate social responsibility reporting (CSRR); second, the elaboration of elements of a framework for a new accounting – corporate nature responsibility reporting (CNRR) – as a response to the critique of CSRR; and, third, the consideration of elements of an enabling and emancipatory praxis in the context of CNRR, including a sketch of a research agenda.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a critical application of aspects of the ecofeminist critique of Western dualism and its emphasis on wholeness, interconnectedness and relatedness, including its particular delineation of nature, to the critique and design of accounting.FindingsInsights from the application of an ecofeminist lens to the critique of CSRR raise questions about the suitability of the western notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its associated accounting currently in use. In order to go beyond critique, the paper introduces the notions of corporate nature responsibility (CNR) and CNRR and offers an outline of key elements of CNRR and an emancipatory praxis in the context of CNRR, including a sketch of a research agenda. The author’s elaborations suggest that in order to overcome the limitations of CSR and CSRR, a corporation ought to be concerned about its broader and holistic CNR. And, it should provide a CNR report, as part of a holistic CNRR concerned with the performance of the company in the context of CNR.Social implicationsThrough creating new visibilities, CNRR has the potential to enhance the well-being of people and nature more generally.Originality/valueEcofeminism’s critique of western dichotomous thinking has been given little consideration in prior studies of accounting. The paper thus draws attention to the relevance of an ecofeminist theoretical lens for the critique and design of accounting by focussing on CSRR. The paper introduces the concepts of CNR and CNRR to address the limitations of CSRR as currently practiced.

Purpose: We seek to add to efforts to treat the relationship between accounting, democracy and emancipation more seriously, giving recognition to difference in this context. To open up space for emancipatory praxis vis-à-vis accounting, we articulate a delineation of accounting as a differentiated universal and emphasise the significance of an appreciation of accounting as contextually situated. We outline implications of a reading of new pragmatism for emancipatory praxis in relation to accounting that takes democracy and difference seriously. \ud Design: Critical and analytical argument reflecting upon previous literature in the humanities and social sciences (e.g. Laclau and Mouffe, 2001) and in accounting (e.g. Gallhofer and Haslam, 2003; Bebbington et al., 2007; Brown, 2009, 2010; Blackburn et al., 2013; Brown and Dillard, 2013a,b; Dillard and Yuthas, 2013) to consider further accounting’s alignment to an emancipatory praxis taking democracy and difference seriously.\ud Findings: A vision and framing of emancipatory praxis vis-à-vis accounting is put forward as a contribution that we hope stimulates further discussion. \ud Originality/value: We extend and bolster previous literature seeking to align accounting and emancipation through further reflection upon new pragmatist perspectives on democracy and difference. In our articulations and emphases here, we make some particular contributions including notably the following. Our accounting delineation, which includes appreciation of accounting as a differentiated universal, and a considered approach to appreciation of accounting as contextually situated help to open up further space for praxis vis-à-vis accounting. We offer a general outline of accounting’s positioning vis-à-vis a reading of a new pragmatist perspective on emancipatory praxis. We articulate our perspective in terms of a number of design principles – for emancipatory praxis vis-à-vis accounting - that adds support to and extends prior literature. We elaborate in this context how appreciation of a new pragmatist continuum thinking that helps to highlight and bring out emancipatory and repressive dimensions of accounting can properly inform interaction with existing as well as new envisaged accountings, including what we term here ‘official’ accountings.

The paper contributes by developing and refining the critical theoretical framing of organizational processes implicating accounting change. This includes articulating how accounting can become more ‘enabling’ in a dynamic micro-organizational context. The latter articulation reflects a critical theoretical appreciation and mobilization of the construct ‘enabling accounting’ that begins to contextualize and reconcile aspects of differing usages of this construct in the literature. In framing organizational processes implicating accounting change, the paper furthers understanding of accounting colonization around categories building upon Laughlin (1991) and related studies, including work seeking to develop Laughlin (notably Tucker, 2013, and the Social Network Theory he promotes). Change pathways implicating colonization are in this respect seen as shaped by structural, relational and social mechanisms. The theoretical framing advanced helps to illuminate aspects of colonization processes that facilitate, as well as hinder or counter, meaningfully enabling dimensions of accounting. This enhances the critical theoretical appreciation of colonization in terms of a more complex evaluation. The theorizing is fleshed out and developed through an action research project conducted at the Research and Development (R&D) site of a multinational corporation in France during the implementation of a performance measurement system (PMS). In theorizing accounting colonization and dynamics of an enabling accounting in an R&D setting, we add to prior appreciations of the relation between creative, innovative, ostensibly intuitive and unstructured processes, and, systems of financial control.

Laughlin's (1995) contribution to the methodological issues debate in accounting (Laughlin R. Empirical research in accounting: alternative approaches and a case for “middle-range” thinking. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 1995;8(1):53–87.) is often cited. Here, we assess and clarify the contribution, including in reflecting upon some critical reception. We initially provide an overview of Laughlin (1995) , enhancing appreciation of this by relating it to prior work. We then appraise some previous critical assessments of Laughlin (1995) and take into consideration Laughlin's interaction therewith. We go on to elaborate our own critical appreciation. We conclude that Laughlin (1995) substantively provides for a number of insights that continue to be positive for the development of research into accounting and related practices. Developing our analysis, we indicate the continuing strengths of a German critical theoretical orientation in researching and developing theoretical appreciation of accounting and related practices today.

The paper traces and assesses key developments and shifts in meaning in the (contested) construct and signifier of emancipatory accounting in the accounting literature over the last four decades. We articulate how an explicit mobilization initially restricted emancipatory accounting to an envisaged role in a Marx-inspired understanding of radically grand or revolutionary transformation. We indicate how this came to delimit the construct notably in a branch of social accounting where it was translated into a harshly monochromatic variant. We then elaborate how influential subsequent interpretations of ‘emancipatory accounting’ have tended to broaden from this narrower position. We come to focus on how the construct has been interpreted in an influential discourse through what we term a post-Marxist new pragmatist perspective – which is critical in remaining committed to radical progress but also reflexively aligned to a pragmatic approach. This reflexive orientation suggests the potentially greater centrality and more general applicability of the emancipatory accounting construct and its value for analysing accounting and praxis generally. We consider the potential increased usage of a critical new pragmatist emancipatory accounting. We thus articulate and promote possibilities for emancipatory accounting(s), pointing to an array of emancipatory projects with their accounting interface.

PurposeThis paper adds to a focus of the social accounting literature (on perceptions and attitudes to social accounting) by seeking to offer insights into Syrian accountants' attitudes towards, and perceptions of, social accounting in Syria in the first decade of the twenty‐first century, with particular attention to its role, future development and implementation.Design/methodology/approachThe paper takes the form of an analysis of interviews of Syrian accountants; contextual analysis (and an appreciation of the prior literature).FindingsSyrian accountants' perceptions are shaped by developments in Syria's socio‐political and economic context, encompassing imperialism/colonialism, globalisation and cultural specificities, including Islam. Interviewees perceived a significant role for a social accounting – that would parallel the Western form of social accounting – in enhancing well‐being in the dynamic context. At the same time, they were reluctant to see the development and implementation of this accounting in Syria as an urgent issue, so that this social accounting might be left initially at least with an even more marginal part to play than in the West. The study suggests that a combination of forces – global developments, Western imperialism and Syria's colonial history – have had a substantively repressive rather than progressive impact on the development of social accounting in Syria vis‐à‐vis its more positive potential.Research limitations/implicationsAll limitations of interview research apply. This study focuses on Syria in a context when economic transition was a major issue. Further studies of economies in transition would be of interest.Practical implicationsAn awareness of how the local and the global interact in debates over social accounting can provide insights for policy makers concerned with accounting regulation.Originality/valueThe focus on Syria, a non‐Western country, enriches the social accounting literature, which focuses mainly on Western developments.

Developments in the socio-economic and political spheres impact upon accounting disclosure and corporate governance. In the context of globalisation, moves have been made ostensibly to converge practices towards global standards, which on the face of it equate to Anglo-American ways. Here, we focus on Japan in this context. We give particular attention to pressure apparently placed upon Japan by the U.S. vis-a-vis bilateral state-level trade negotiations – an under researched area – from the late 1980s. We critically interpret how the Japanese Government has responded to such apparent pressure.

Interacting with the text of Molisa (in this issue), we critically reflect on emancipation, the spiritual and accounting. In so doing, we develop argumentation concerning emancipatory accounting, including in relation to the promotion of such accounting in practice.

PurposeMen and women are now being admitted to membership of the major UK professional accountancy bodies in approximately equal numbers. This trend has focused attention on the ways in which professional accountants combine careers and family life, particularly when women have children. Recognising the limitations inherent in the widely‐used term “work‐life balance” that polarises life and work, this paper instead seeks to consider the “work‐lifestyle choices” made by female accountants. Work‐lifestyle choices refer to the ways in which people place different emphases on the work and private spheres, according to their individual circumstances. Feminist researchers have argued that women's work‐lifestyle choices have been limited by structural constraints. Over the past decade, a newer argument, preference theory, has emerged, suggesting that women's choices owe less to inequalities in the workplace and more to the preferences of individuals, particularly, but not exclusively, women. The purpose of this paper is to explore the work‐lifestyle choices made by female members of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), in terms of both structural constraints and preferences, in order to present a more holistic understanding of the work‐lifestyle choices made by this particular group of well‐educated, middle‐class women.Design/methodology/approachThe paper combines feminist theory and preference theory in the context of the results of a questionnaire survey of female members of ICAS and 14 interviews with female members of ICAS.FindingsThe responses of these accountants suggest that, while structural constraints are evident, many work‐lifestyle choices were driven by a desire to spend more time with children, and by women's perceptions of their mothering role. Most women, while recognising the opportunities forgone, were nonetheless happy with the choices that they had made.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the literature by examining the voices of female accountants in order to explore how perceived gender roles impact on career decisions and work‐lifestyle choices.

Globalisation, linked to Anglo-American political economy, is a force for socio-economic, political and cultural change. This has ambiguous implications for accounting and the profession and engenders differing and ambivalent responses. We critically and contextually give a voice to Syrian accountants, exploring how they perceive globalisation's actual and potential impacts. In-depth, face-to-face interviews with Syrian accountants indicate they perceive globalisation as Anglo-American and imperialistic in character. The interviewees highlight challenges facing the Syrian profession, including competition in accountancy from international firms that threatens to impact upon local jobs, the need to adopt and enforce international standards of accounting in Syria and related changes required in training to achieve integration in the global order. They also see globalisation as having positive dimensions that may be mobilised to better their lives and the profession. The critical appreciation of the accounting-globalisation interrelation and recognition of ambiguity here constitutes a particular resistance to globalisation's negatives, to which local professional accountancy is actually and potentially aligned.

The interrelation of privatisation and accounting constitutes a wide-ranging focus for research that is attractive from a critical theoretical and interdisciplinary perspective. A number of studies may be considered part of this focus in holding themselves out as types of evaluation of – or as an accounting, or accountability, for – privatisation. For us, the evaluation of privatisation programmes is properly a concern of critical accounting research and of those interested in the development of more holistic forms of accounting and auditing for appraisal, such as is envisaged in forms of social accounting and social auditing. Indeed the assessment of privatisation has been deemed within the ambit of the social audit movement. Privatisation in Africa is controversial. In today's context it is often integral to the particular form of the globalisation process and carries related ambiguities. Apparently something of a panacea for its advocates, it is problem-ridden for its critics. How should we account for privatisation in Africa? We promote the delineation of a holistic accounting evaluation model by reflecting on a critical review of research constituting accounts of privatisation in Africa. Of course such research, to the extent that it is holistic or comprehensive, would include attention to the mobilisation in context of various accountings as well as related practices of governance at micro- and macro-levels—in turn reflecting the sense in which accounting, along with related systems of governance, is pervasive in privatisation processes. While we find strengths in the research analysed and acknowledge its contribution, we point to deficiencies and gaps from a critical theoretical and interdisciplinary perspective. These gaps and deficiencies delimit policy discourse and praxis vis-a-vis privatisation in Africa and beyond. They also point to a more holistic accounting model of appraisal. We acknowledge the particularities of Africa, and indeed of the differing nations, cultures and regions of Africa, but also suggest the model's relevance not only for African contexts but beyond.

This study focuses on accounting education in the Syrian transition context and in the international context of globalization. It offers insights into accounting education and into the interrelationship in this respect between the accountancy profession and academia in this context. We elaborate an historical and contextual analysis of the Syrian context in relation to accounting education. We report on a series of interviews (conducted in 2002 and 2005) of professional accountants and accounting academics in Syria that elaborates the views of these key parties on a number of interrelated matters: the current limitations of tertiary accounting education in Syria; the role of the accountancy profession in providing education and training; and the developing interrelationship between the profession and academia. In concluding, we summarize some key insights and elaborate on the relevance of the study and the future research it suggests.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide a response to “Analysing accounting discourse: avoiding the ‘fallacy of internalism’”, an article by Ferguson in which a work by Gallhofer et al. is critiqued.Design/methodology/approachThe paper responds to critique by Ferguson that one of their papers does not consider the “social‐historical contexts of text production, transmission and reception”. It also looks at Ferguson's challenge of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and its political motivation.FindingsThe paper defends Gallhofer et al. in that they chose to “promote critical discourse analysis respecting the focus of accounting and finance” and that the aim of their work was pedagogical. They chose to focus on the production of the texts rather than their reception because the work wanted to gain insights into how accounting texts are read and mobilised by radical activists in pursuance of their emancipatory goals, especially through CDA.Originality/valueThe paper provides a defence of a previous paper of the authors, which was concerned with emancipatory change, evident in Fairclough's version of CDA.

We elaborate an immanent critique of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), critically exploring its claim to serve the public interest by reference to its character and position, its official principles and its work vis-a-vis campaigns to disaggregate accounting focused on extractive industries and operating segments. We raise issues about the institution and its rhetoric and indicate that it does not straightforwardly apply its principles. Unable to abstract from its socio-political context, its accounting prescriptions intertwine with concerns to inform democracy and a related politics of accounting disaggregation. We attempt a rescuing critique, indicating IASB's potential to better serve the public interest.

Academics have long expressed concern about the role of professional accountancy education in the constitution of ongoing and future professional accountancy practice and what lies beyond it. The p...

Consistent with an understanding of globalisation as a contextual phenomenon that has assumed particular significance in relatively recent times, social and critical theoretical analyses of accounting have come to address accounting in relation to globalisation. A somewhat neglected dimension in critical research has been that of conceiving of the accounting and globalisation interaction as one wherein positive potentiality and opportunity can be found. Our argument, consistent with other critical theoretical appreciations, is that within the context of globalisation there are also potentialities for progressive and emancipatory change, albeit through struggle. A focus on accounting vis-a-vis globalisation helps to bring out accounting's location in relation to potentiality. We overview here, with some attention to prior literature, the interrelation of accounting and globalisation, giving some consideration to the relatively neglected dimension of accounting's location in relation to the potentiality and opportunity of globalisation.

Purpose – Seeks to extend debates about the emancipatory potential of the internet by commenting on Sikka's reflections (in this issue) on the papers by Gallhofer et al. and by Paisey and Paisey (both papers in this issue).Design/methodology/approach – Response to Sikka's reflections, with an elaboration of the intersection of the critical and postmodern in this work as a means of extending the debate.Findings – The benefits of the internet vis‐a‐vis counter accounting and emancipatory change should not be taken for granted; rather the internet is another site of struggle in which to intervene. The internet, however, does alter opportunities.Practical implications – Insights for a counter accounting practice on the net.Originality/value – Extends debates over the internet and online reporting in facilitating emancipatory accounting.

PurposeThe 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 accounting's 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/approachThere 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.FindingsWeb‐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/valueClarification 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.

PurposeThis essay sets out to introduce the special issue.Design/methodology/approachThe essay introduces the focus of the special issue, the manifestation of the phenomenon of online reporting and the issues it engenders in relation to accounting, and briefly reviews the contribution of the articles in the issue.FindingsFinds that the papers in this special issue extend the understanding of the interface between online reporting and accounting.Originality/valueThe essay locates the contributions of the issue within a problematic, whereby online reporting is understood critically, interpretively and contextually in terms of its actualities and potentialities.

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.

It remains the case that surprisingly little research has been done into the mobilising of accounting in media such as newspapers. Moreover, one can still argue that there is, again surprisingly, a paucity of research into accounting's emancipatory dimensions, actual as well as potential. And this is in spite of the scope for such work and the apparent significance of such topics for the critical social analysis of accounting. We seek here to add to and build upon the work that has been done in these areas [see, Gallhofer S, Haslam J. The aura of accounting in the context of a crisis: Germany and the First World War. Acc Organ Soc 1991; 16(5/6):487–520; Gallhofer S, Haslam J. Accounting/art and the emancipatory project: some reflections. Acc Audit Accountability J 1996;9(5):23–44; Gallhofer S, Haslam J. Accounting and emancipation: some critical interventions. London: Routledge; 2003; see also, for instance, Lehman C, Tinker T. The ‘real’ cultural significance of accounts. Acc Organ Soc 1987;12(5);503–22; Lehman C. Accounting's changing role in social conflict. New York: Markus Wiener; 1992; Beard V. Popular culture and professional identity: accountants in the movies. Acc Organ Soc 1994;19(3):304–18; Bougen P. Joking apart: the serious side to the accountant stereotype. Acc Organ Soc 1994;19(3):319–35; Broadbent J, Ciancanelli P, Gallhofer S, Haslam J. Enabling accounting: the way forward? Acc Audit Accountability J 1997;10(3):265–75; Lehman G, Tinker T. Environmental accounting: accounting as instrumental or emancipatory discourse. In: Proceedings of the interdisciplinary perspectives on accounting conference, July; 1997; Shearer T. Ethics and accountability: from the for-itself to the for-the-other. Acc Organ Soc 2002;27(6):541–73]. We elaborate a critical historical analysis of accounting's mobilisation in the radical media in the crisis context of the First World War and its aftermath. We focus upon the way in which accounting is mobilised in Forward, an important radical weekly newspaper of the key context of politically charged ‘Red Clydeside’ during this crisis period. Our general concern here is to further bring out and articulate the political character of accounting and its potential in the context of seeking to transform accounting and society. In our focus, we explore a number of ways in which accounting is mobilised to support a socialistic rhetoric that is disturbing for hegemonic forces. Our study contributes to an understanding of radical accounting functioning in the early twentieth century, adding to previous insights. We thus aim here to further encourage engaged action towards emancipatory development in and through 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 article's 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.

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.

Within the discourse and practice of social responsibility and accounting, one can find alternative definitions or delineations of social accounting. Keywords: social accounting; historical perspective

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.

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.

The literature of social and educational research reflects the significance that issues of culture and ethnicity have gained in such research. This is evident, for example, in concerns to analyse and redesign social practices and to elaborate a critique of dominant Western institutions. In the research literature upon the accounting focus, evidence of such concerns has been comparatively scarce. While some research has been done@8ifor example, researchers have pointed to the Eurocentric character of accounting and critically analysed ethnic minority experiences of accountancy@8ithere is much more to do. Particularly scarce in the accounting literature have been studies concerned to focus upon accounting from an indigenous cultural perspective or to promote multicultural accounting education. Such a silence is of significance in the light of increasing worldwide concerns to learn from and to protect the cultures of indigenous peoples and to question the universal validity of Western practices, notably such as those of Eurocentric education. In this paper we focus upon Maori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa New Zealand, and critically assess and explore their participation in and experiences of accounting education. We concentrate upon university accounting education which is central to the process of gaining admission into the accountancy profession of Aotearoa New Zealand. We provide a historical and contextual analysis which elaborates upon the oppression and marginalisation of Maori people. The study reflects our concern that, in inquiring into why particular ethnic groups, including indigenous peoples, are under represented and lack influence in particular social activities and occupations, we need to give consideration to the role of cultural as well as socioeconomic factors. And in this respect we need to critically analyse the very institutions and practices of Western accountancy and Western accounting education as forms of insensitive cultural imperialism. These forms can change rather than the culture of peoples. For us, increasing the participation of Maori in accounting education and accounting practice and changing the character of these practices so that they are more reflective of Maori indigenous culture are two dimensions of the struggle for change which can be mutually reinforcing. We are supportive of such change and seek to bring this about in the Eurocentric institutions of Aotearoa New Zealand. Our contention is that a deeper critical analysis of issues of ethnicity in Western society can help to inform a critique of Eurocentric practices and institutions including in the sphere of accounting. In brief, we explore a range of interconnected themes: the complex character of the marginalisation and oppression of Maori; focusing in, the position respecting accounting education and the very practice of accounting; how this relates to ways forward and connects up with wider issues.

Accounting is problematically shaped by a culture of spin. In the practice of accounting, presentational management risks assuming greater importance than an open and clear communication motivated by a concern to serve the public interest. We elaborate upon this problematic feature of contemporary practice and suggest pointers towards responding to the challenge it poses in terms of a better way for accounting in the new millennium.

This study explores the teaching of International Accounting on both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in New Zealand in New Zealand's polytechnic and university sectors. Included in the study is an analysis of course outlines of international accounting courses from business and commerce faculties of the New Zealand tertiary sector. The paper compares the teaching of international accounting in New Zealand with that of the United Kingdom, Australia and the US. Results suggest that even though international accounting issues have been given significant prominence in accounting research as of late, there is a paucity of International Accounting education offered to New Zealand accounting students including in comparison with the UK, Australia and the US. Through our analysis and discussion we seek to engender a more critical review of international accounting education.

This paper is concerned to articulate the silences and omissions of mainstream feminist accounting research. Such research overlooks considerations of class, race and culture. It leaves unquestioned the current socio-political and economic order, succumbs in effect to current racial biases and fails to offer a counter to prevalent Western ethnocentrism. It not only tends to conservatism in these respects but also, relatedly, it fails to develop a critique of patriarchal social arrangements.

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.

Tony Puxty was prominent amongst those critical scholars who have explicitly sought to go beyond accounting in attempting to contribute to the development of an accounting that would be more enabling and emancipatory. He was engaged in a rescuing critique of modernity which gave some recognition to accounting's possibilities. In this paper, we build upon Tony Puxty's related concern to explore the ethics of accounting research, which equates to a concern with evaluating accounting research in general. Our focus is upon “critical” accounting research. Some reflections upon the meaning of “beyond”, including drawing insights from the work of Umberto Eco, help us to add to the growing literature that has been asking awkward and provocative questions of that accounting research commonly labelled as critical. Our concern is to build upon those contributions to critical accounting research which in our view further the task of realising an emancipatory accounting and to negate or redirect the influence of more problematic work that has been done. We place emphasis upon some ways forward for a critical accounting research which we hold will contribute further to the project of seeking out an enabling accounting that can help rescue and reshape modernity.

The resurgence of interest in public sector accounting has been evident in the significant growth of the literature concerning both developed and developing countries. Literature reviews in the area, however, have only focused on the former thus leaving a gap which has been overlooked for some time. This paper begins to respond to this lack in the literature by critically assessing research on public sector accounting and financial management in developing countries. The paper elaborates the various views expressed by writers in the field and also identifies omissions in terms of themes, methodologies, and methods. In particular, we argue that most of the mainly non‐empirical studies in the literature have been influenced to a very large extent by development economics thinking (including theories the relevance of which have been significantly questioned in that discipline). We conclude by offering some suggestions for future research in the area.

This paper critically examines the relevance of profit related pay (PRP) for the U.K. small firm sector. Since 1986, the U.K. government has actively encouraged PRP, which attracts generous tax breaks, because it believed that PRP would make pay more flexible downwards and would significantly improve employee identification, morale and productivity. An analysis of the theoretical arguments and the assumptions made regarding the nature of the U.K. small firm sector that underlay these claims suggests, however, that the likelihood of achieving either of these alleged benefits is small. An appraisal of the available empirical evidence on the practical implementation and operation of PRP schemes suggests that the tax relief simply encourages firms to introduce ‘cosmetic’ schemes that have no appreciable impact upon the behaviour of either firms or employees. Moreover, the experience of some firms that adopted PRP schemes indicates that, far from increasing morale and productivity, PRP often creates new tensions and conflict between owners and employees. These and other unintended consequences illustrate the inherent difficulties of government attempts to use the tax system to alter the behaviour of agents engaged in a wide variety of complex and very heterogeneous bargaining situations.

This paper reviews Pacific Accounting Review, 1988–96. Against the background of an historical overview of the journal's development, the paper includes analyses of publications and citations in the journal. The paper looks forward to the future progress of Pacific Accounting Review.

If we are concerned to develop an emancipatory accounting, and if we are sensitive towards the tendencies to ethnocentrism, chronocentrism and dogmatism, we can potentially gain insights from the social and critical theoretical analysis of any phenomena, whatever be their location in time and space. This is the position held by advocates of critical and interdisciplinary research in accounting. Adopts this position and draws from the critique of art. More specifically, points to insights for the development of any emancipatory accounting by concentration on debates on the role of art in the emancipatory project that took place in early twentieth century Germany.

This study critically reflects and reports on a compulsory course component in Alternative Approaches to Corporate Finance on an Accounting and Financial Management undergraduate degree at the University of Zed. The paper is concerned to make out the case for such a course and more generally aims to stimulate debate about what is being taught in the name of accounting and finance education and how a teaching with genuine pedagogical value should be developed. Included in the paper is an analysis of a questionnaire which was completed by students attending the course. The questionnaire was used as a pedagogic device at the close of the course component to encourage students to reflect upon their experience and here it provides a mechanism to further communicate to the reader the character of the component and some of the issues it addressed.

In this paper we focus upon Bentham'sChrestomathia,a text on education which proposes that bookkeeping/accounting be taught on a particular modern school curriculum. Our critical, historical and contextual analysis is aimed at challenging accounting education today.

In Gallhofer and Haslam (1994), we argued that a critical and interpretative analysis of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century ‘accounting texts’ of Jeremy and Samuel Bentham can contribute to a critique of accounting today. In that paper we were concerned to indicate ‘negating’ properties of accounting. Here, we analyse the Benthams’ accounting texts with the more general aim of seeking to discover and bring out potentialities for the more beneficial future development of accounting.

Previous studies have pointed to the sense in which the Benthams, both Jeremy, the English philosopher, and his brother, Samuel, placed a high value upon and gave some significance to accounting in their work. In this paper and in one to be published in a subsequent issue of this journal (Gallhofer and Haslam, forthcoming: b), we conduct an analysis of the Benthams’ ‘accounting texts’. In this first paper, we especially consider the sense in which the Benthams’ conception of accounting is suggestive of an accounting which may be understood to have detrimental or ‘negative’ social consequences.

This paper develops a historical perspective on corporate accountability from an analysis of the writings of the English philosopher, Jeremy Bentham. It is suggested that Bentham offers an understanding of accountability which can be insightful today and contribute to current debates on corporate accountability.

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.

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 women's 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 profession's hierarchy. Standard explanations for this are analysed with reference to the evolving critical theory literature in accounting.

According to Best (1995, p. 270), ours “is an age devoid of emancipatory vision” (cited in Gallhofer & Haslam, 2003, p. ix). In Accounting and Emancipation we aim to impact upon the present in that our concern is to explore how accounting may be positively aligned with a (positive) notion of emancipation. In the process of exploration, we draw upon and intervene in debates from the social sciences and humanities (especially debates pertaining to emancipation), radically question existing practices and ways of seeing and engage with multiple accountings and agencies in various modern contexts. Aside from the motivating concern to search out an emancipatory vision vis-a-vis accounting, we hold that the relation between accounting and emancipation and how it may constitute a positive alignment are matters that are complex, multifariously shaped and notably fluid. Thus, another factor motivating our study is the need to keep such matters under review.