There is wide recognition among those in the "non-mainstream" of the accounting research community that there are "things" about conventional accounting practice and its impacts which need to be changed. There are papers demonstrating why accounting/the world needs to change (see, e.g.

Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to document organizations' self-descriptions of why they initiated sustainable development (SD) reporting and explore these explanations using an institutional theory framework. Design/methodology/approach-Constructs organizational narratives from semi-structured in-depth interviews with reporting champions who participated in an SD reporting workshop series. The narratives are analysed using institutional theory to explore how regulatory, normative and cognitive institutions combine with organizational dynamics to influence SD reporting activity. Findings-For these particular organizations, choosing to engage in reporting appears not to be a rational choice. Rather reporting is initiated because it has come to be an accepted part of pursuing a differentiation strategy, it offers some contribution to existing business challenges, and organizations value the rewards it offers. This rationale constitutes a cognitive mechanism within institutional theory. Originality/value-The paper provides useful information on initiating sustainable development reporting based on organizations' self-descriptions.

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ScopeA key element of sustainable development is the emphasis placed on, to quote Brundtland (WCED, 1987),``future generations '', or, as Tonn (2007) puts it,``Sustainability and future studies should be intimately related''. As the pace of change increases, planners must address the long-term implications of their policy decisions. As a result there is increasing interest in using scenario techniques and`futures' exercises to better inform policy development. The purpose of thinking about the future is not to predict what will happen but rather to consider alternatives. Through a range of alternative futures it is possible to make judgments about underlying assumptions. Futures research provides a powerful framework and set of techniques that allow us to test both the feasibility and the desirability of possible futures.In this paper I review the importance of long-term frameworks in terms of both content and process, in the wider context of postnormal science as developed by Ravetz and Funtowicz in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s (notably, Funtowicz andRavetz, 1990;1993;1994;1997;Ravetz, 1986) and in subsequent literature. The long-term planning context in New Zealand is reviewed along with, more specifically, development of the Auckland Sustainability Framework (ASF), which took place over a fifteen-month period in 2006^07 involving many multiactor interactions. This kind of long-term visioning of futures can be seen as a technology to tackle, using Rittel and Weber's (1973) term,``wicked problems'' such as sustainability. In turn, Rayner (2006) reduced Rittel and Webber's (1973) characterisation to unique aspects of wicked problemsöthat is, they are:. symptomatic of deeper problems;. unique opportunities that cannot easily be reversed;. unable to offer a clear set of alternative solutions;. characterised by contradictory certitudes;. (contain) redistributive implications for entrenched interests;. persistent and insoluble. Abstract. Society requires new forms of science and technology to productively accommodate the intrinsic value-laden judgments needed to manage the high uncertainties and considerable long-term impacts of sustainable urban planning. Responses to these`wicked' problems include the development of postnormal science in the early 1990s. In subsequent literature on postnormal sustainability technologies, multiactor approaches to decision making are beginning to emerge. I examine an example: the development in New Zealand of a 100-year vision: the Auckland Sustainability Framework. Developed over fifteen months through`messy' consultation across stakeholders, it has provided a`clumsy' outcome, namely one which enabled multiple viewpoints to be expressed and responded to by others. The process adopted offers evidence in support of the development of sustainability frameworks over much longer timescales than the current norm in local authorities, and indications of how such processes may unfold.

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This paper investigates the social marketing of sustainability in New Zealand and examines the usefulness of advertising campaigns to enlist and empower people, as both consumers and citizens, towards environmental care. It draws on discussions about 'citizen-consumer subjectivities' and the model of the 'political economic person', which link sustainability and consumption through asserting people's capacities as reflecting citizens. Printed advertisements by local and national government agencies about air pollution, fuel dependency and energy consumption are analysed to see whether advertising campaigns can operate on multiple levels for a range of audiences -desirable for broadening understanding of sustainable consumption and dealing with the complexity and experiential aspects of 'doing' sustainability. The advertisements analysed have an authoritative dimension that downplays this complexity and variability. The paper concludes that these advertisements do not go far enough to involve individuals in processes of co-producing knowledge about sustainability, and to vest them with expertise in exercising sustainability in their daily lives. The implications are that advertising campaigns that engage with the complexity surrounding consumption in people's modern lives, and with variability in meanings of sustainability, have the possibility of inciting citizen-consumer political subjectivities.