Search

Purpose - This paper seeks to examine the social construction of the racialised, colonial subaltern accountant in the British imperial centre in the early twentieth century.. Design/methodology/approach - Primary sources are used to provide an historical analysis of the British accountancy arena in the 1920s, this being the period when "race thinking" first became explicit. Secondary histories of race and empire are used to contextualise this analysis by highlighting: the growth of "race thinking" in the latter part of the nineteenth and the early decades of the twentieth centuries; and the American challenge to British imperial hegemony after the First World War. Findings - This paper tracks the struggles of British accountants in the imperial centre in the 1920s to find a path between racialist attitudes in the imperial centre, their own included and countervailing discourses of non-discrimination. For the Scottish chartered bodies, this involved the development of a de facto barrier to entry when a proposed de jure one aroused, surprisingly enough, the prospect of retaliation from American accountants. Research limitations/implications- Limitations in the primary sources preclude detailed examination of the attitudes of individuals or for all variations in the positions adopted by particular bodies. Practical implications - The troubling thing about the demise of explicit race talk by the end of the 1920s is that de facto barriers to the entry of the racialised, subordinated Other remained in place. Originality/value - This paper shows that the rise of race thinking in Britain did not leave British accountancy untouched; largely through the pressure it placed upon the identity of British accountants qua Britons and the consequential issue of inclusion/exclusion of non-Britons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The aim of the paper is to argue that accounting practices in colonial systems of government can help to construct the identity and "competency" of colonised communities. Design/methodology/approach - The approach was a historical analysis of the colonial political and economic policies of the USA in the Philippines from 1898 to 1924. The role of accounting practices was demonstrated by focusing on the case of the Philippine National Bank from 1916 to 1924. The bank was created by a wholly-Filipino Legislature when Americans were actively promoting "home rule" by the Filipinos as a prelude to independence. Using Weber's theoretical distinction between modern and traditional societies, primary documents on the bank and secondary references of the policies of the USA during the period of study were examined. Findings - It was found that the Americans used controls over government moneys to express their modernity, efficiency and goodness, while the Filipinos resisted them to perpetuate traditional social arrangements in the context of a "modern" Philippine state. The controls "failed" under the stress of such tensions. The Americans concluded that the Filipinos were unable to manage government moneys "properly", thus denying them their independence. Research limitations/implications - Weber's theorization of traditional and modern societies should be applied to understand interactions between coloniser and colonised in cases other than the Philippines. Originality/value - This paper will be valuable to academics and policy makers because it shows that accounting need not be an active agent by colonisers/administrators to appropriate spoils from its colony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article pays tribute to the late accounting professor W.P. Birkett.

The papers explore the organisation of accounting practitioners in five nations: Brunei Darussalam, Japan, Malaysia, the People's Republic of China and the Philippines. By and large, the authors have written about their own country, from their own national perspective, without reference to any overarching framework. As the organisers of a recently completed international project on the "new public financial management" also found, this "was the only really practicable option, as experiences, philosophies and approaches to writing were different in so many ways across the participating nations." The notion of "Asia" as "the continent which is the eastern part of the European landmass" serves as a stark linguistic reminder of the pitfalls of Euro-centrism in a project of this kind. Inviting local authors to participate and to choose the theme of their paper was the strategy chosen to minimise the dangers, without, however, necessarily removing them altogether. The reader will also find that an attempt has been made, during the editorial process, to retain local accents and concerns. Qualifications aside, they contain much food for thought and scope for further research. The debate about how to deal with them brings into view, over time, a veritable panoply of interest groups and some curious "interest talk". The changes from the 1970s to the 1990s are fascinating. The spectacular and sustained growth of Asian nations over the past several decades excited the attention of many disciplines. The present project was initially conceived, at least in part, as an opportunity to explore the contribution of accounting professionals to the "Asian miracle."

The Australasian Corporation of Public Accountants (ACPA) was founded in 1907, the first Australian national association of public accountants and their clerks. From 1907 to 1914 it endeavoured, against the opposition of both Australian and British associations, to obtain a royal charter. The ACPA's charter attempt brought into focus struggles within the emergent accountancy 'profession' both in Australia and Britain. It also became implicated in the process of state formation during a formative period in Australia's political history. Using hitherto unexplored archival material, this study shows that the ACPA's charter attempt: (a) was a serious attempt to drive a wedge between the 'public' and 'commercial' accountant; and (b) raised issues about the legislative and executive domains of Australian state and Federal governments both inter se and in relation to Britain. The study suggests that the failure of the attempt can be ascribed to the interaction of (a) and (b). It also suggests that one of the outcomes of the attempt, namely, the (re-)assertion of authority of Australian state governments over accountancy matters, helped to diminish the hegemony of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia, eventually formed in 1928, over public accountancy in Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]