Accounting for controlling, accounting for giving: the Pavonians and their vocational school in nineteenth-century Brescia

Scientific investigation on the accounting practices adopted by educational institutions is attracting growing interest at the international level and this research line is intersecting with other innovative ones. This paper, which adopts an Anglo-Foucauldian approach integrated with the asymmetrical exchange perspective, analyzes the accounting practices employed by a religious congregation for the management of a pioneering vocational training school in nineteenth-century Brescia. The study demonstrates the importance of these practices, not only for the ordinary administration of the school, but also for addressing problems of educational poverty in a governmentality perspective integrated with the logic of giving.