Anthropological and accounting knowledge in Islamic banking and finance: rethinking critical accounts

Abstract

Accounting for accounting demands renewed attention to the knowledge practices of the accounting profession and anthropological analysis. Using data and theory from Islamic accountancy in Indonesia and the global network of Islamic financial engineers, this article challenges work on accounting’s rhetorical functions by attending to the inherent reflexivity of accounting practice and the practice of accounting for accounting. Such a move is necessary because critical accounting scholarship mirrors, and has been taken up by, Islamic accountancy debates around the form of accounting knowledge. The article explores the work that accounting literature shoulders in carving up putatively stable domains of the technical and rhetorical, and makes a case for a reappreciation of the techniques for creating anthropological knowledge in the light of new cultures of accounting.

Remitting subjects: migrants, money and states

“…Accounting procedures purport merely to describe or to record a pre-existing reality. However, given that accounting is also supposed to present information in a 'decision-useful' form, accounting also comprises a 'modality of argument' (Maurer 2002(Maurer : 662, 2003Miller 1998). This modality of argument is implicit in calculations themselves.…”

AAOIFI reporting standards: Measuring compliance

“…The answer may be found in the resurgence of Islam in recent decades (Karim, 1990;Maurer, 2002). This resurgence is reflected in the desire of Muslims to apply Islamic principles to all aspects of their lives, including business life.…”

Critical Muslim Intellectuals’ discourse and the issue of ‘Interest’ (ribā): Implications for Islamic accounting and banking

“….Therefore, there was no reason to refrain from considering what was available in contemporary accounting thought' (Karim, 1995, p. 290). As a result, Maurer (2002) explains that AAOIFI's, has mainly concentrated on developing accounting standards emphasising technical and instrumental concerns related to interest-ban and Zakat calculations. Further, the body has had a significant role in promoting Islamic banking products and legitimising them as interest-free.…”