Acting on distances: A topology of accounting inscriptions

Corvellec, Hervé; Ek, Richard; Zapata, Patrik; Campos, María José Zapata

doi:10.1016/j.aos.2016.02.005

Cited by 31 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Full-tax accounts rally a public by establishing connections between human and nonhuman planetarians. When considering accounting's ability to make connections, accounting scholarship has often associated this ability with action at a distance (e.g., Robson 1992;Corvellec, Ek, Zapata, & Campos 2018). The notion of representation is one way of addressing the stand-in character of accounts for something or somebody remaining at a distance to be acted upon, usually by the numbers (Robson 1992: 690-691, 701).…”

Section: Accounting For Mediation: From Representation To Worldingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public value and the planet: accounting in ecological reconstitution

Vollmer

2020

AAAJ

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PurposeThis paper explores the role of accounting in ecological reconstitution and draws attention to the public value as a topic of strategic interest for developing it.Design/methodology/approachThe process of ecological reconstitution described by Latour in the “Politics of Nature” is traced towards a distinct set of accounting practices. These accounting practices, designated here as full-tax accounting, offer indications of the changing shape and role of accounting in ecological renewal.FindingsFull-tax accounting extends the planetary public towards the inclusion of nonhuman planetarians. It establishes matters of care in multimodal accounts and haunts constitutional processes with the spectre of exclusion. Starting with full-tax accounting, public-value accountants emerge as curators of matters of care.Research limitations/implicationsThe association of accounting in ecological reconstitution with matters of care highlights the mediating and immersive effects of accounting practice, inviting accounting scholars to explore these effects more systematically.Practical implicationsAccountants need to reconsider their stewardship role in relation to the fundamental uncertainties implied in planetary public-value accounting, support the process of ecological reconstitution by associating themselves with matters of care and develop ethics of exclusion.Social implicationsBroad alliances among planetary accountants are needed to extend the terms of ecological reconstitution, to gain and preserve attunement to matters of care and defend these attunements, in the atmospheric politics of ecological renewal, against regressive tendencies.Originality/valueIn problematising public value, the paper draws attention to a convergence of interests among scholars in accounting, public sector research and the environmental humanities. It presents a case for planetary accounting in ecological reconstitution that calls for participation from across disciplines, professions, arts and environmental activism.

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Section: Accounting For Mediation: From Representation To Worldingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public value and the planet: accounting in ecological reconstitution

Vollmer

2020

AAAJ

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“…The concept has been used within the accounting literature as well, helping us follow the structuring effects of accounting or a “statement” (Themsen & Skaerbaek, 2018). The dual consequences of calculative technologies have been described in studies of risk management (Themsen & Skaerbaek, 2018), waste management (Corvellec, Ek, Zapata, & Campos, 2018), innovations (Busco & Quattrone, 2018b), and impact measurement (Power, 2015). Following such reasoning, accounting as a performative calculative technology may therefore not only represent the processes that unfold in everyday situations, but it also shapes and reshapes humans and nonhumans upon their consent in object formation (Revellino & Mouritsen, 2015).…”

Section: Theoretical Framework: Performativity and Visualizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calculating pay in Swedish schools: Accounting, performativity, and misfires

Fırtın

Kastberg

2020

Financ Acc Manag

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This is a study of individual differentiated pay (IDP) for teachers in Sweden. We regard IDP as part of the observed accountingization of professional work. Our aim is to contribute to the understanding of accounting as a performative calculative device through the study of how performance is made an element of individual pay. As we sought to answer "How are merits and performance of professionals turned into a set IDP?" we observed the ways in which IDP had diverse performative consequences, which made the connection between performance and merit less influential in the process of setting wages. We contribute to the theorizing of accounting as a performative practice by introducing two propositions that indicate the importance of considering the extent to which accounting is turned into a dominant narrative and the extent to which the operations can be visualized in a relevant, stable manner. The propositions are the result of the approach to include visualizations as a focal dimension of performativity. The concept stresses the importance of recognizing the prerequisites of relevance and correspondence.

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“…In the management accounting literature, numerous studies build on ANT (e.g. Baxter et al, 2018, Briers and Chua, 2001, Busco and Quattrone, 2018, Chua, 1995, Corvellec et al, 2018, Justesen and Mouritsen, 2011, Lowe, 2001, Lowe, 2000, Robson, 1992. Robson and Bottausci (2018) argued that ANT contributes to our understanding of accounting in several ways.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Profitability calculations under trial of strength

Laguercir

Chapman

Kern

2019

AAAJ

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the organizational construction of profit at the responsibility-centre level, how underlying cost calculations are challenged, and the role of accountants therein. Design/methodology/approach This paper analyses profit calculation in a public social housing organization that experienced New Public Management (NPM). Participant observations, archives and interviews inform the study over three years, enabling access to day-to-day practices. Findings This study examines a trial of strength that revisited long-existing profitability and cost calculations. Accountants held competing views of how to treat labour costs. Some were anti-programme during a trial of incompatibility, while others were programme defenders. The authors also provide evidence of the stability of an established network and its resistance to the claims of an adversary spokesperson in a trial of strength. The concept of trial of incompatibility proved helpful in showing how the actor networks within OMEGA played out the tension between profit orientation and the social mission of offering affordable dwellings. Research limitations/implications The paper provides rare qualitative data on the significant and complex role of calculative costing choices in determining intra-organizational profitability and its interference with the inherent social mission of the organization. Practical implications The authors suggest that profitability calculations are influenced not only by economic context but also by different views of organizational actors regarding how to calculate profit. These calculations would benefit from a more detailed and explicit documentation of reasons for choices made, given the potential for different and, in principle, equally valid approaches. The authors provide further evidence of the complexity of the public social housing sector. Social implications This research points to a departure from the mission of public social housing in the face of NPM reforms and further questions the compatibility of a profit orientation with the provision of affordable dwellings. Originality/value The findings show intra-accounting variation regarding a specific element of profit calculation (labour costs) relating to the organization’s wider mission and status.

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Acting on distances: A topology of accounting inscriptions

Cited by 31 publications

References 52 publications

Public value and the planet: accounting in ecological reconstitution

Public value and the planet: accounting in ecological reconstitution

Calculating pay in Swedish schools: Accounting, performativity, and misfires

Profitability calculations under trial of strength

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