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PurposeThis paper examines the calculative practices used by the Slave Compensation Commission to value a slave for the purposes of compensating slave owners on the abolishment of slavery across the British colonies in 1833. It contributes to accounting research in the field of valuation, particularly to understanding the practices of valuing human life.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology is primarily archival and draws on the records of the Slave Compensation Commission held at the British National Archives (Kew).FindingsThe paper makes two contributions to the literature. Firstly, it contributes to the valuation studies literature by suggesting the significance of understanding the practice of valuation as a product of the dynamics of strategic action fields (Fligstein and McAdam, 2012). Secondly, it contributes to the theory of strategic action fields by revealing the role of calculative technologies in supporting the organizational apparatus of valuation within the Slave Compensation Commission, and therefore suggests the powerful role of accounting in stabilizing a strategic action field.Originality/valueThe paper provides novel insights into the monetary commensuration of life and the role of calculative technologies in that valuation process.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, disability rights found a place on the U.S. policy agenda. However, it did not do so because social movement groups pressured political elites or because politicians were responding to changes in public preferences. Drawing from recent work in neo- institutionalism and social movements, namely the theory of strategic action fields, I posit that exogenous shocks in the 1960s caused a disability policy monopoly to collapse giving way to a new policy community. Using original longitudinal data on congressional commit- tees, hearings, bills, and laws, as well as data from the Policy Agendas Project, I demonstrate the ways in which entrepreneurs pursued a new policy image of rights within a context of increasing committeeinvolvement, issue complexity, and space on the policy agenda, and the consequences this had on policy.

This article assesses the influence of criticisms of female representations in advertising practices in the brewing industry in Brazil between 2012 and 2017 from the perspective of Strategic Action Fields. Unlike existing analyses, the object of the study was conceived as a set of interconnected fields and the role of governance units in the dynamics of social change was emphasized. An analysis of the content of 213 advertisements for the country's largest beer brands, 99 lawsuits filed against the brewing industry in the National Advertising Self-Regulation Council (CONAR) and media reports was carried out. The results indicate that the loss of symbolic effectiveness of sexist advertising practices was driven by episodes of conflict that had wide media repercussions and affected the dominant companies in the brewing industry. These factors made it possible for criticism to circumvent the conservative performance of CONAR, the established governance unit in the fields of advertising in Brazil.

This paper extends extant research on financialisation, which has mainly evolved in advanced capitalist economies, through an historically informed field study of governance reforms in Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Mobilising the theory of strategic action fields (SAFs), we conceptualise the evolution of such reforms as a protracted framing process where different actors sought to influence the meanings attributed to shareholder-focussed governance practices. We examine how challengers of extant governance practices, such as the World Bank, and incumbent actors representing the interests of the Chinese state vied for influence over governance reforms and how various regulatory bodies, assuming the role of internal governance units (IGUs), enjoyed varying degrees of success in advancing context-specific governance practices. Shareholder-focussed accounting techniques, such as Economic Value Added (EVA™), played an increasingly salient role in this process. Yet, emerging governance practices primarily came to reflect the interests of the Chinese state in maintaining and increasing the value of state assets whilst preserving its political control of SOEs. We contribute to the literature on financialisation by showing how pressures for shareholder value creation can be channelled into governance practices which attenuate the pervasive effects of financialisation in contemporary society. We also contribute to research on accounting in emerging economies by exploring the under-researched role of IGUs in the local adaptation of “Western” governance practices. We discuss how future studies can bring these bodies of research closer together and extend research on financialisation to a wider range of institutional contexts.

Against the backdrop of the transformation of the German energy system, a new dynamic is emerging between the previously separate economic fields of renewable energy systems, transportation, and information and communication technologies (ICT). The trend towards digitalization and interconnectivity is prompting the formation of new corporate alliances and business ideas. We argue that the increasing interactions between actors in these sectors are evidence of the emergence of a new intersectoral field. Building on concepts from neoinstitutionalism, particularly, the framework of strategic action fields (SAF), we examine the overlaps and dynamics that are arising in an exemplar of what policy makers and planners often refer to as “living labs.” With help of this case study we observe the cross-field innovation activities taking place at a particular local site. Our empirical examination draws upon a four-year-long ethnography of an innovation campus in Berlin, the German capital. This case reveals the development of interdependent interests and collaborations between both different industries and between companies and academic institutions. These interconnections are built, in part, by socially skilled actors, who act as border crossers between established fields.

This article analyzes the process of construction of public policies of sustainable production and consumption in Brazil after the country joined the Marrakesh Process in 2003. Based on the strategic action fields perspective, we analyze the emergence of this field, its characteristics and their status through the collective action of their main social actors, their actions, interests and disputes. Empirical material for analysis included plans developed during the period, minutes of the meeting, documents submitted to the public consultation, responses provided by civil society after the consultation, as well as in-depth interviews. Evidence shows that a series of obstacles have been delaying further advances of the politics of sustainable production and consumption due to disputes between incumbents and challengers. Resumen Este artículo analiza el proceso de construcción de políticas públicas de producción y consumo sostenible en Brasil tras el ingreso del país en el Proceso de Marrakech, en 2003. A partir de la teoría de campos de acción estratégica, se buscó analizar la emergencia de este campo, sus características y su estado por medio de la acción colectiva de sus principales actores sociales con sus acciones, intereses y disputas. Como material empírico para análisis se utilizaron los planes desarrollados en el período, las actas de reunión, los documentos lanzados a la consulta pública, las respuestas proporcionadas por la sociedad civil tras la consulta, además de entrevistas en profundidad. Fue posible constatar que una serie de obstáculos vienen ocasionando retrasos a los avances de la política de producción y consumo sostenible en función de disputas entre actores incumbentes y desafiantesbejassinaguijón y los valores sociales y culturalesatribuidos a esaactividad. Resumo Este artigo analisa o processo de construção de políticas públicas de produção e consumo sustentável no Brasil após o ingresso do país no Processo de Marraquexe, em 2003. A partir da teoria de campos de ação estratégica, procurou-se analisar a emergência deste campo, suas características e seu estado por meio da ação coletiva de seus principais atores sociais com suas ações, interesses e disputas. Como material empírico para análise foram utilizados os planos desenvolvidos no período, as atas de reunião, os documentos lançados à consulta pública, as respostas fornecidas pela sociedade civil após a consulta, além de entrevistas em profundidade. Foi possível constatar que uma série de obstáculos vêm ocasionando atrasos aos avanços da política de produção e consumo sustentável em função de disputas entre atores incumbentes e desafiantes.

This article examines how consumers may work strategically to alter market dynamics through formally organized activities. We address this issue in the context of the Danish beer market and its evolution over the last two decades, with a specific empirical focus on the role of a formally organized consumer association. We draw on key tenets of recent advances in sociological field theory, which views social order as comprising multiple and related strategic action fields. From this perspective, we describe the Danish beer market and its transformation, with an emphasis on how Danish beer enthusiasts played a significant role in altering the logics of competition in the market, but also played a significant institutionalized role within the field itself. We theorize this activity as consumers’ collective action.

The review considers a new theory of strategic action fields provided in the book “ATheory of Fields”. The author analyzes its basic elements— new as well as borrowed from other theories, and its significance for the development of organizational theory, the theory of social movements, institutional theory and economic sociology. The last part of the text criticizes some debatable theses of this theory. Theory of strategic action fields discusses the issue of the local social orders formation. The authors represent all social orders as fields, which consist of the following actors: incumbents; challengers and internal governance units. All fields are embedded in a broader field environment. It gives the most significant incentives to changes of the organizational models dominant in the fields in question. Incentives to changes are converted into changes in the case of mobilization for the collective action. It is crucial to have special social skill for the start of mobilization process. Authors define social skill as an ability to understand other actors and manage them by creating shared meanings and identities for themselves and others. Thus the authors shift their attention from the control based on the resources or power to the ability to voluntary cooperation. Social skill and the ability to voluntary cooperation are the consequence of “existential functions of the social”, the important innovation of this theory.

International audience; The present article analyses the process of the creation of a second Centre Pompidououtside Paris, based on the hypothesis that the success of the project depends on its socialembeddedness. It is argued that a strong indicator of this embeddedness is the emergence of anew strategic action field—crystallizing the meeting and linking of different actors with divergentinterests, but shared understandings about the common stakes. The process starts from acoincidence of cultural, political and economic motives that have their origins in related fields.These different interests are promoted by a few key protagonists who negotiate a preliminary, butstill fragile social order, mixing idealistic ideas and values with political and economic issues.The analysis reveals that social institutions of French culture exert a strong influence, whileinternal governance units in Paris retain significant powers of control. Although new networkconnections seem to form smoothly around the Centre Pompidou-Metz globally in the region, inboth the cultural and the economic domain they have developed quite unevenly.

Technological devices are supporting the convergence of individuals and groups, sharing and implementing common repertoires of contention: these opportunities redefine possibilities for arranging at distance, defining a common minimum frame, and allowing multiple adhesion paths and ways of participation. Moreover, the ability to attract political and media attention and the maintenance of the internal solidarity play a strategic role both for successful protests and resistant movements. According with the theoretical framework deepened in the first part, this paper analyses the mobilization against the Universal Exposition 2015 held in Milan. After a brief overview of the context and the mapping of the main organizations belonging to No Expo Network, an assessment of their involvement in the coalition is presented. Thereafter, the online communication strategy is explored through a systematic analysis of the No Expo website and its visibility in websites, blogs and social network sites of the various groups belonging to the Network. In a mixed perspective, both as scholars and as activists, in this article our purpose is, on the one hand, to describe and also to critically analyse the coalition and its dynamics; on the other hand, to underline the main criticalities of Universal Expositions, by supporting the No Expo arguments.

Important research efforts have been developed to account for power in the analysis of supply chains. This paper argues that further gains may arise by considering organizations as social constructions mediated not only by power relations, but also by cultural representations intrinsically intertwined to it. Its purpose is to discuss the dynamics of stability and change in supply chains based on the Strategic Action Fields (SAFs) approach. A theoretical essay was elaborated discussing some of the main implications of this perspective to the study of supply chains and presenting propositions to enable the construction of research objects and guide empirical studies in the area. Propositions emphasize how ongoing cultural-political relations circumscribed to different fields, including the organization, with its internal disputes.

In order to contribute to the debate about social entrepreneurship, we take an empirical perspective and describe the phenomenon in Catalonia, Spain, during the financial crises of the early twenty-first century. For this aim, we conducted 43 in-depth interviews with social entrepreneurs, launched a web-based survey with 90 responses, and built a database with 347 organizations and/or ventures settled in Catalonia with an explicit social/environmental goal. The data show that many social/environmental initiatives emerged during the economic crisis, either as a self-employment alternative to unemployment, or as a commercial venture started by nonprofit organizations as a reaction to the reduction in public expense in this sector. In addition, the crisis fueled the emergence of ventures oriented to non-market exchange and social currencies. As a whole, we argue that this new reality can be conceptualized as the emergence of an unsettled Strategic Action Field where banks, business schools and public administrations alike promote the label of "social entrepreneurship" through awards and startup services, whereas other groups claiming the same social/environmental goals contest this market-oriented definition of the field Con el fin de contribuir al debate sobre el emprendimiento social, asumimos una perspectiva empírica y describimos el fenómeno en Cataluña (España), durante las crisis financieras de principios del siglo XXI. Con este objetivo, realizamos 43 entrevistas en profundidad a emprendedores sociales, lanzamos una encuesta en la web con 90 respuestas, y creamos una base de datos con 347 organizaciones y/o empresas instaladas en Cataluña con una meta explícita social/medioambiental. Los datos muestran que surgieron muchas iniciativas sociales/medioambientales durante la crisis económica, ya sea como una alternativa de autoempleo frente al desempleo, o como una empresa comercial iniciada por organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro como una reacción a la reducción del gasto público en este sector. Asimismo, la crisis alimentó el surgimiento de empresas orientadas a intercambios no de mercado y monedas sociales. Como un todo, argumentamos que esta nueva realidad puede ser conceptualizada como el surgimiento de un inestable Campo de Acción Estratégico (SAF, por sus siglas en inglés) en el que los bancos, las escuelas de negocios y las administraciones públicas promueven juntas la etiqueta de "emprendimiento social" mediante premios y servicios de puesta en marcha, mientras que otros grupos que reivindican las mismas metas sociales/medioambientales cuestionan esta definición del campo orientada al mercado.