Returning to its roots in activism and economic justice, this issue exposes accounting practice as a contested terrain by examining its role as a social force encompassing issues of value, governance, ethics, politics, and class. Arguing that the view of the discipline as objective and fair is a myth, these papers illuminate the detrimental social consequences of failing to recognize accountings role in the social environment. Investigating accounting's use of independence as a protective shield in obscuring winners and losers regarding financial activity, the papers illustrate accountings contribution to the failures of free markets worldwide: systemic global poverty, questionable privatization of public enterprises and public goods, and greater divides between so-called first and third world nations. Revealing the integrated nature of regulation, accounting, and ethics, the papers in this volume question the logic of merely fine tuning current systems proposing instead visionary and innovative change by probing deeply into our beliefs, social practices, and consciousness.

Independent Accounts: The Possibilities for Auditor Independence in the Age of Financial Scandal (Advances in Public Interest Accounting, 12)

Business & Money

Cheryl R. Lehman

Economics

Emerald Publishing Limited

This work rejects the two most commonly held positions regarding the role of accounting in certain ongoing financial crises: the position of market theorists that accounting doesn't matter and the position of theorists that support the view of "representational faithfulness".

Accounting's Changing Role in Social Conflict (Critical Accounting Research)

Markus Wiener Publishers

Accounting's contribution to reality construction is envisioned in this volume of critical research, examining accounting's role in contemporary issues: ethics, sustainability, financial instability, post SOX legislation, education, and performance appraisals to name a few. Do CEOs manage rather than reveal environmental liabilities in their never-ending quest for reporting earnings? Under the scrutiny of negative publicity, does the banking community revise images, mask impending crises, and distort regulatory processes? Will shifts in litigation risk influence financial reporting? How do demands and perceptions from powerful external stakeholders change education or organizational processes? How might accounting positively engage in social movements, grass-roots empowerment, and change? These are among the explorations in this volume through case studies, interviews, analysis and interdisciplinary perspectives. Exposing accounting's impact on major social struggles of our times, these works contribute to the debates by revealing that the discipline can be a vital technology in the tool box of governance, political, economic and social practice, holding a key for affirmation and empowerment.

Managing Reality: Accountability and the Miasma of Private and Public Domains (Advances in Public Interest Accounting, 16)

Giving voice to the marginalized, broadly defined, is the aim of this volume in its examination of social life increasingly marked by global inequality and the extension of market rationalities to all arenas. Revealing the outcome to populations, stakeholders, and the environment when policies resting on narrowly constrained logics are employed, these researchers lead the way in probing accountings participation in significant struggles of our times. In order to better appreciate the consequences of economic globalization, the works examine contemporary rhetoric, governance, politics, and strategies and the manner in which accounting technologies are integrated. These works maintain that transformation is inevitable and they search for possibilities of change that can be manifested in socially equitable practices and improved social justice by enhancing accountability.

Sustainability and Governance (Advances in Public Interest Accounting, 18)

Accounting

Volume 19 of Advances in Public Interest Accounting responds to Global forces and accountability once again converge in this volume, illustrating the significant and multifaceted nature of the role of accounting in societies.

Accounting in Conflict: Globalization, Gender, Race and Class (Advances in Public Interest Accounting, 19)