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Counter accounts are hoped to present a counterforce to hegemonic discourses and bring about emancipatory change in societies. While the political potential of counter accounts has, to an extent, been examined in prior accounting literature, there is a need to analyse the associated moral dimension. Our purpose in this paper is to advance theoretical understanding of the transformative potential of counter accounts by examining how they mediate the suffering of oppressed groups and how that mediation could lead to public action. Through a conceptual lens combining media studies and critical discourse analysis, we analyse counter accounts of animal production created by social movement activists in Finland. We find that, in general terms, the transformative potential of counter accounts is associated with their ability to act as a form of moral and political education, by repeatedly suggesting to their audiences how to feel about, and act publicly on, the suffering of an oppressed group. The moral engagement of the counter accounts' audiences takes place through a combination of semiotic cues that simultaneously present the suffering as an objective fact, evoke sympathy towards the oppressed group and present practical options on how to act on the suffering. We also note that counter accounts can give rise to different ethical discourses and practical engagement options depending on the media and semiotic cues employed in their construction. This leaves room for discourses that acknowledge some of the concerns presented in the counter accounts but point towards actions that do not threaten the status quo.

Acknowledgements:T h e a u t h o r w i s h e s t o t h a n k S a l m e N ä s i , P e t r i V e h m a n e n , R o b G r a y , Crawford Spence, David Campbell, and the participants of parallel sessions at the EAA's 27 th annual congress at Prague in April 2004, and at the CSEAR Summer School at Dundee in September 2004 for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. In addition, the author is grateful to the editor and the two anonymous referees, whose insightful comments improved the paper immensely. The author moreover greatly appreciates the financial support received for this study from the Finnish Foundation for Economic Education and ACCA. The continuous support from the University of Tampere is likewise acknowledged. The usual caveat applies. 2 Meanings of the term 'sustainable development' in Finnish corporate disclosures AbstractThere is an on-going discursive struggle over how the social and environmental problems related to modern societies should be understood and resolved. Sustainable development has become a preeminent concept in these discussions and businesses are increasingly employing the term in their communications. However, sustainable development means "different things to different people in different contexts" (Bebbington 2001, 129). Thus, there have been recent calls in the literature to analyse what the companies are actually saying in their disclosures (Thomson and Bebbington in press, Kolk 1999). Subscribing to the social construction of reality, this study critically assesses how the term 'sustainable development' is constructed in the disclosures of Finnish listed companies.

This paper analyses the dynamics and transformative potential associated with counter accounts. It explores how counter-accountants' attempts to rearticulate animal production result in their own identity becoming constructed during the conflict setting and how this identity subsequently relates to the transformative potential of the counter accounts. Design/methodology/approach: The paper investigates counter accounts released during an animal rights activists' campaign against industrial meat and dairy production in Finland. The counter accounts, consisting of secretly filmed videos from pig farms, contrasted the official depiction of animal farming and received wide publicity over several years. The main empirical dataset consists of 21 interviews with a variety of parties that have a stake in the conflict. This dataset is supplemented with a broad set of published documentary material. Findings: The authors find that the counter accounts managed, to some extent, to rearticulate the meaning of animal production, potentially resulting in the emergence of small-scale societal effects. When trying to undermine the counter-accountants' radical political demand, the dominant social groups not only dismissed the counter accounts but also attempted to constitute the counter-accountants' identity as irresponsible, militant and negligent, drawing a firm political boundary between 'them' and 'us'. Likewise, the counteraccountants seemed reluctant to communicate with representatives of the dominant regime, resulting in an antagonistic as opposed to an agonistic relationship between the two political groups. The paper also discusses ethical questions concerning the production of counter accounts, the importance of having a clearly articulated political vision, and the challenges related to evaluating whether the counter accounts have been successful. Originality/value: The paper provides insights into the design, use and reception of counter accounts in a real-life social setting, thus providing a direct response to a recent call by Thomson, Dey and Russell (2015). The paper illustrates the usefulness of the conceptual dynamic conflict arena framework presented by Thomson and colleagues (2015), and makes use of discourse theory (Laclau and Mouffe, 1985; Laclau, 2005, 2001, 1996) to highlight how in exploring the transformative potential of counter accounts it is necessary to also consider how the identity of the counter-accountants becomes constructed and understood. Furthermore, the paper also seeks to advance the connections between accounting research and significant global problems by investigating an ethically and environmentally disputed industry, and by engaging with the interrelationships between accounts and accountability in the context of socio-ecological change.

KAIST, CEIBS, the Ivey Business School, the Schulich School of Business and the Université Toulouse 1 Capitole for their valuable comments and feedback. Charles Cho also acknowledges the financial support provided by the Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture (FQRSC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the ESSEC Research Centre (CERESSEC). Michelle Rodrigue acknowledges the financial support from Université Laval's Programme de soutien à la recherche de la Faculté des sciences de l'administration and the École de comptabilité.