Contributing to the international accounting history movement: Integrated forums of discourse

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine the emergence and development of all conferences, colloquia and symposia connected with Accounting History, a specialist, English-language international journal. These journal-associated events comprise an integrated, multidimensional set of scholarly forums which have contributed to the international accounting history movement. This article presents an historical account of the motivation for establishing the Accounting History International Conference and the later associated colloquia, first, in the form of the Accounting History Doctoral Colloquium and, second, the Accounting History International Emerging Scholars’ Colloquium, as part of the international strategy of the New Series of the journal from 1996. Regional symposia across Australia and New Zealand, known as the Accounting History Symposium, were also introduced under a holistic approach to nurturing historical accounting research. An overview of the conferences, colloquia and symposia held to the time of writing is provided along with a discussion of the key distinguishing features of these integrated forums of discourse.

Accounting history and theorising about organisations

“…The role of theory, and of certain theorists, in historical accounting research subsequently stimulated an extensive and still not settled debate (e.g., Carnegie, 2014a). New accounting history has been accused of "ethnocentrism" by Zan (2016, p. 582) [14] an excessive focus on the UK, which does not acknowledge recent expectations and related trends for scholars, especially in European countries, to publish their research in leading international refereed journals (e.g., Carnegie, 2017;Gomes, Giovannoni, Gutiérrez-Hidalgo & Zimnovitch, 2015;Jones & Oldroyd, 2015). Accounting historians have been leading scholars in the field to engage in interdisciplinary and critical research, and to collaborate with researchers from other disciplines, both business and non-business (e.g., Baskerville, Carrera, Gomes, Lai & Parker, 2017;Carnegie, 2014bCarnegie, , 2020Gomes et al, 2011;Guthrie & Parker, 2006;Matthews, 2019;Walker, 2008).…”

Accounting as a social practice: US railroad regulation, value of service accounting, and regional economic development

“…The second aspect of Miller’s (1994) schema pertains to the ways that accounting could be applied to rationalize social circumstances, conditions, and outcomes. This is evident in several studies that have surveyed how accounting historians have imported sociological and cultural concepts to broaden the intellectual range and social sensitivity of their inquiries (Carnegie, 2014, 2017; Carnegie et al, 2020; Carnegie and Napier, 1996; Fleischman and Radcliffe, 2005; Fowler and Keeper, 2016; Gomes, 2008; Miller and Napier, 1993; Napier, 2006, 2009; Parker, 1999, 2015; Richardson, 2008; Walker, 2008).…”

Reflections on a journey with Accounting History as an international refereed journal, 1995–2019

“…Accounting History has gained much profile and impetus from its connection with journal-associated international conferences, colloquia and symposia (Carnegie, 2017). These integrated forums of discourse have been a key strategy in developing the international orientation and standing of the journal.…”