Some reflections on the construct of emancipatory accounting: Shifting meaning and the possibilities of a new pragmatism

Abstract

The paper traces and assesses key developments and shifts in meaning in the (contested) construct and signifier of emancipatory accounting in the accounting literature over the last four decades. We articulate how an explicit mobilization initially restricted emancipatory accounting to an envisaged role in a Marx-inspired understanding of radically grand or revolutionary transformation. We indicate how this came to delimit the construct notably in a branch of social accounting where it was translated into a harshly monochromatic variant. We then elaborate how influential subsequent interpretations of 'emancipatory accounting' have tended to broaden from this narrower position. We come to focus on how the construct has been interpreted in an influential discourse through what we term a post-Marxist new pragmatist perspective-which is critical in remaining committed to radical progress but also reflexively aligned to a pragmatic approach. This reflexive orientation suggests the potentially greater centrality and more general applicability of the emancipatory accounting construct and its value for analysing accounting and praxis generally. We consider the potential increased usage of a critical new pragmatist emancipatory accounting. We thus articulate and promote possibilities for emancipatory accounting(s), pointing to an array of emancipatory projects with their accounting interface.

Beyond accountants as technocrats: A common good perspective

“…Accounting is necessarily both an instrument of emancipation and of domination (Gallhofer & Haslam 2017;Power and Laughlin, 1996). Distinguishing between accounting practices as 'distorting' or 'enabling' can never be made absolutely (Power & Laughlin, 1996) and this ambiguity is intrinsic to the practice (March, 1987).…”

The Construction of the Efficient Office: Scientific Management, Accountability, and the Neo‐Liberal State

“…See, for example, Bryer (, , , , , ), Cooper (), Cooper et al (), Gallhofer and Haslam (), Sikka (), and Toms et al ().…”

What is accounting? The “being” and “be-ings” of the accounting phenomenon and its critical appreciation

“…Gallhofer et al (2015) and Gallhofer and Haslam (2017) only implicitly acknowledge the Heideggerian critique in this regard. The new pragmatist post-Marxist thinking of Gallhofer et al (2015) and Gallhofer and Haslam (2017) indicates the ambivalences, ambiguities and complexities of all accountings, from conventional to social/environmental and to counter accounting in a nuanced analysis that reflects a continuum thinking emphasizing relative rather than absolute difference. Substantively, their analysis points to various negative (as well as positive) features of such accountings and in this sense is consistent with much of the above critique.…”

“…Substantively, their analysis points to various negative (as well as positive) features of such accountings and in this sense is consistent with much of the above critique. In Gallhofer et al (2015) and Gallhofer and Haslam (2017), while a cautious pragmatism and a concern to respect the other is given emphasis, there is understatement of the Heideggerian commitment to the need to be aware of and attend to the value of the existing and the other and to problematize in this sense the basic control orientation.…”

“…Again, the point to emphasize is that the researcher should question any taken-for-granted character of the researched and thus, for instance, suspend the naïve conception of accounting as neutral: or, under the silent imperialism of a problematic neo-classical economic reasoning, accounting may hide or otherwise support perverse priorities and values of the financial capitalistic sociopolitical order that contribute to the massive destruction of the social good and nature (see McKernan, 2007). At the same time in and through the discourse one is seeking to appreciate the phenomenon and recognise its positive actualities and potentialities (Gallhofer and Haslam, 2017). Husserl (1992) articulates phenomenology as a "contemplating" of the phenomenon in its context, an initial abstaining from explanation.…”