Surfacing the political: Women’s empowerment, microfinance, critical dialogic accounting and accountability

Tanima, Farzana Aman; Brown, Judy; Dillard, Jesse

doi:10.1016/j.aos.2020.101141

Cited by 69 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…It also studies the motivations that led public bodies to use such a tool, the public's reaction and, consequently, SM inherent and contingent limitations. We rely on previous literature on public engagement and dialogic accounting to interpret the public health agencies' communication content, citizens' reactions, and the evolution of interaction levels over time, consistently with the view that dialogic processes inform accountability relationships between organisations and stakeholders (Bebbington et al, 2007;Brown, 2009;Tanima et al, 2020). With this aim, we analyse Facebook posts of public health agencies operating in Italy, UK and New Zealand.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public engagement and dialogic accounting through social media during COVID-19 crisis: a missed opportunity?

Landi

Costantini

Fasan

et al. 2021

AAAJ

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PurposeThe purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate why and how public health agencies employed social media during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak to foster public engagement and dialogic accounting.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analysed the official Facebook pages of the leading public agencies for health crisis in Italy, United Kingdom and New Zealand and they collected data on the number of posts, popularity, commitment and followers before and during the outbreak. The authors also performed a content analysis to identify the topics covered by the posts.FindingsEmpirical results suggest that social media has been extensively used as a public engagement tool in all three countries under analysis but – because of legitimacy threats and resource scarcity – it has also been used as a dialogic accounting tool only in New Zealand. Findings suggest that fake news developed more extensively in contexts where the public body did not foster dialogic accounting.Practical implicationsPublic agencies may be interested in knowing the pros and cons of using social media as a public engagement and dialogic accounting tool. They may also leverage on dialogic accounting to limit fake news.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to look at the nature and role of social media as an accountability tool during public health crises. In many contexts, COVID-19 forced for the first time public health agencies to heavily engage with the public and to develop new skills, so this study paves the way for numerous future research ideas.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Public engagement and dialogic accounting through social media during COVID-19 crisis: a missed opportunity?

Landi

Costantini

Fasan

et al. 2021

AAAJ

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“…can foster an overly technocratic view of accounting and accountability (Brown and Dillard, 2015a;Brown and Tregidga, 2017;Tanima et al, 2020). Newell (2006) argues that accountability cannot be viewed as apolitical, and a narrow focus on financial reporting, markets, and shareholder wealth maximisation fails to address the political processes whereby powerful actors protect themselves from accountability to poor and marginalised people.…”

Section: Traditional Views Of Accountability and Critiquementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rather than prioritising the interests of capital markets, financial investors and business, critical accounting scholars underline the need for an alternative approach to accounting and accountability practice. A growing number of critical accounting scholars recommend more democratic approaches (Alawattage and Azure, in press;Alwattage and Fernando, 2017;Bebbington, et al, 2007;Brown, 2009;Brown and Dillard, 2015;Brown and Dillard, 2015a;Brown and Tregida, 2017;Dillard and Vinnari, 2019;Molisa et al, 2012;Tanima et al, 2020).…”

Section: Monologic Accountingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Deliberative democracy is criticised by scholars such as Chantal Mouffe for seeking to achieve "a fully inclusive rational consensus" (Mouffe, 2000, p. i), which can be difficult to achieve due to "cultural" and "ideological" differences and power asymmetries of participants (Molisa et al, 2012, p. 304). Thus, it can silence the voice of marginalised groups (Molisa et al, 2012;Mouffe, 2000, p. i;Tanima et al, 2020). In contrast, scholars such as Brown ( 2009), call for a more pluralistic but agonistic approach based on the work of Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau to democratise accounting and accountability practice.…”

Section: Towards An Agonistic Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…analysing competing ideologies in the accounting and labour relations domain and their implications for accounting to employees and unions (Brown, 2000); exploring debates among business actors, governments, policymakers, labour unions and environmentalists over the operationalization of social and environmental accounting (SEA) (Brown and Fraser, 2006); investigating the disputed claim of the microfinance industry that it empowers women in developing countries (Tanima et al, 2020); and analysing debates among academics and civil society groups surrounding SEA engagement (Brown and Dillard, 2013). Analysing competing socio-political perspectives enables people to critically reflect on current accounting practices and consider alternative perspectives; for example, identifying whose and which framings of accountability dominate in specific contexts.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework -Dialogic Accountingmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The Politics and Struggle of Accountability: A Case Study of Bangladesh’s Ready-Made Garment (RMG) Industry

Quraishi¹

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<p>Accountability mechanisms such as multi-stakeholder accountability initiatives are commonly considered important to improve workers’ rights in developing countries where such rights are allegedly weak and corporate accountability practices often ignore workers’ interests. Several accountability mechanisms have been proposed and developed, but critical accounting and development literature shows accountability remains “elusive” (Belal et al., 2015, p. 55). The focus of this multi-disciplinary study is on codes of conduct (COCs) as an accountability initiative. Existing research points to problems associated with the design and operation of COCs in both developed and developing country contexts. However, these are often treated in a technical and apolitical way with little attention paid to the socio-political contexts in which accountability initiatives are embedded. This study focuses on Bangladesh’s ready-made garment (RMG) industry as a case study. The study critically evaluates the multi-stakeholder accountability initiatives and analyses the views, perspectives, ideologies, contestations and adversarial relations of the key stakeholders regarding the accountability initiatives. To achieve this, the study draws upon Brown’s (2009) dialogic accounting and other scholarly works (i.e., Fougère and Solitander, 2020; Goetz and Jenkins, 2005 and Newell, 2006) based on agonistic democracy theory. This research applies qualitative data collection methods, including interviews with a diverse range of actors and documentary sources. This study extends the recent research that emphasises the possibilities of dialogic accounting to facilitate critiques of neoliberalism and to support democratic development in accounting and accountability practice . In particular, this study extends the previous work by applying dialogic accounting in analysing the accountability initiatives (e.g., Accord and Alliance) within the context of a developing country. By identifying the discourses between powerholders (e.g., multinational brands and retailers, local factory owners) and marginalised groups (e.g., workers) in accountability practices, this study helps to surface the political contestation and provides a basis for advancing understanding of the most effective ways to ensure accountability to and for the marginalised workers. Drawing on the works of dialogic accounting scholars, this study provides an alternative perspective to reimagine accounting and accountability practices. </p>

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Elements of microfinance on spatial poverty alleviation in Sri Lanka: Structural equation modeling

Kumari

2022

Poverty & Public Policy

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Sri Lanka being a developing country, its poverty can be identified as a serious issue for the development of the country. Poverty can be identified as a spatial characteristic in Sri Lanka which can be seen in the high poverty rates in several areas as the result of disparities of natural and physical resources distribution and, geographical disadvantages. Microfinance has been identified as a significant tool for eradicating poverty in many Asian countries after the 1990s. Sri Lanka also launched several microfinance programs to reduce poverty in the country.Despite the availability of microfinance in Sri Lanka, very few studies have been carried out; therefore, only limited knowledge of the empirical and theoretical impacts of the various microfinance elements on poverty alleviation is available. This study is an attempt to remedy this paucity of knowledge. Primary data were gathered through a Likert scale questionnaire that was distributed among 497 borrowers of the Samurdhi microfinance program. This sample was chosen from five districts of Sri Lanka.Structural Equation Modeling was used for testing the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that microcredit was the most significant element of microfinance for alleviating spatial poverty in Sri Lanka. Nonfinancial Services and Insurance Services also had a positive impact on spatial poverty alleviation. Micro Savings and Social Intermediation Services did not have a notable positive impact on spatial poverty alleviation in

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Surfacing the political: Women’s empowerment, microfinance, critical dialogic accounting and accountability

Cited by 69 publications

References 52 publications

Public engagement and dialogic accounting through social media during COVID-19 crisis: a missed opportunity?

Public engagement and dialogic accounting through social media during COVID-19 crisis: a missed opportunity?

The Politics and Struggle of Accountability: A Case Study of Bangladesh’s Ready-Made Garment (RMG) Industry

Elements of microfinance on spatial poverty alleviation in Sri Lanka: Structural equation modeling

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