Accounting: an un‐Australian activity?

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand if accounting is an un‐Australian activity, contrasting the notion of the bush and bushman present in popular Australian poetry and cultural myth with the notion expressed by Maltby of the link between the soul of the middle class and the practice of bookkeeping. The paper aims to explore the notion of a tension between what might be seen as indigenous values and the values of Western capitalism.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents an analysis of Australian poetry to identify in this culturally significant media how the city and the technologies of accounting are negatively contrasted with the bush and the bushman. Since many Australians migrated from European countries, we might expect bookkeeping to claim a foundational place in the Australian soul.FindingsThis literature shows bush dwellers as being exploited by those from the city, and city professionals such as the accountant and the lawyer as having lost their sense of self and soul. The sense of “other” reflected by the concept of the bush in Australian literature represents a tension between a structured and ordered European sense of self expressed by Maltby and an archetypical sense of self implied by the character of the bushman and connected to the Australian landscape, with its inherent but little acknowledged debt to the Aboriginal. In this landscape the absence of both accounting and the associated rhetoric of economic rationality allow other forms of rationality to emerge.Originality/valueThis is the first time that poetry has been examined in relation to accounting. It shows a deep insight into the place of archetype of the accountant in Australian cultural identity. In addition it argues that responses to accounting can reflect underlying rhetorics of rationality.

Constructing accounting in the mirror of popular music

“…In this paper we adopt an approach informed by the cultural theory of Pierre Bourdieu. It has been recognised that social and cultural institutions such as literature and movies have a power to influence the public perceptions of accounting. Beard (1994) and Dimnik and Felton (2006) explored depictions of accounts in films, Bougen (1994) in humour, Maltby (1997), Czarniawska (2008) and Evans (2009) in literature, Evans and Jacobs (2010) in poetry and Smith and Jacobs (2011) in popular music. These papers illustrate how certain stereotypes of accounting are reflected and sustained by cultural institutions and practices.…”

The accounting meta-metaphor of the Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot

“…Aesthetic accounting, for example, could be evoked through the "sensory or emotive power" of accounting (Walters-York, 1996, p. 54), while fragments of accounting identity (Yu et al, 2015) could be reduced by stereotypes of accountants as honest (Evans and Fraser, 2012), dishonest (Baldvinsdottir et al, 2009;Jeacle, 2008) or responsible (Baldvinsdottir et al, 2009). Just as the bringing together of popular music and accounting (Smith and Jacobs, 2011;Jacobs and Evans, 2012), media and accounting (Evans and Jacobs, 2010) and cinema and accounting (Jeacle, 2009) has broadened an understanding of accounting so too has the connection between poetry and accounting become relevant to accounting researchers. Accounting metaphors may articulate social tensions (Walters, 2004;Young, 2001;Walters-York, 1996), challenge fictions that underlie accounting thought (McGoun et al, 2007) and provide examples of accounting rituals (Gambling, 1987) and accounting magic (Gambling, 1977).…”

Accounting in the media

“…In the words of Paterson, it is "the round eternal of the cash-book and the journal". Accountants that work in the city are "to be pitied as greedy, stunted and unhealthy" (Evans and Jacobs, 2010) and who profit from the misery of the country folk.…”

“…Critical depiction of professionals such as accountants is not made in the poetry of this period. The migration of individuals to the city to work as accountants and other professionals results in "the dual loss of place and childhood" (Evans and Jacobs, 2010). This loss and regret is eloquently depicted in the words "They will never forget their quick-fade cow-piss slippers" (Murray, 2002).…”