IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/aosoci/v82y2020ics0361368219300972.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The radical potential of leaks in the shadow accounting project: The case of US oil interests in Nigeria

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew, Jane
  • Baker, Max

Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which leaked documents can be recruited to contribute to the counter-hegemonic aims of the shadow accounting project. Drawing on material published by Wikileaks as part of Cablegate, our case study focuses on private communication between US Embassy officials about Chevron Nigeria from 2002 to 2010. In analyzing these documents, we mobilize the ideas of both Laclau and Mouffe (1985) and Jessop (1990), emphasizing the role discourse plays in the production and maintenance of hegemonic coalitions between powerful state and market actors, which are central to neoliberalism. Our analysis suggests that the sharing of discourse, much of which occurs in private, allows a hegemonic coalition to agree to a “’popular-national’ programme” (Jessop, 1990) that serves the interests of the coalition, while masquerading as collectively beneficial. In our case study, this private discourse provided the means through which the “moral and intellectual leadership” of the coalition could be embedded in a shared commitment to the maintenance of oil production in Nigeria, despite significant resistance from local communities. In choosing to use leaks to explore the state-capital nexus, we offer a shadow account of the discursive production of hegemony that reveals it to be an ongoing and active project. Importantly, we also show that the very act of creating and recreating hegemony through discourse produces moments of vulnerability and fragility that present counter-hegemonic opportunities. When leaks are mobilized to produce shadow accounts of the contradictions and tensions that exist between the state and capital, the “political frontier” can be restored in ways that re-politicize and radicalize democracy (Mouffe, 2018, p. 4).

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew, Jane & Baker, Max, 2020. "The radical potential of leaks in the shadow accounting project: The case of US oil interests in Nigeria," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:82:y:2020:i:c:s0361368219300972
    DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2019.101101
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368219300972
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.aos.2019.101101?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David L. Levy & Daniel Egan, 2003. "A Neo‐Gramscian Approach to Corporate Political Strategy: Conflict and Accommodation in the Climate Change Negotiations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 803-829, June.
    2. Jan Pieterse, 2012. "Leaking Superpower: WikiLeaks and the contradictions of democracy," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(10), pages 1909-1924.
    3. Vinnari, Eija & Laine, Matias, 2017. "The moral mechanism of counter accounts: The case of industrial animal production," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-17.
    4. Sonja Gallhofer & Jim Haslam & Elizabeth Monk & Clare Roberts, 2006. "The emancipatory potential of online reporting: The case of counter accounting," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 19(5), pages 681-718, September.
    5. Himick, Darlene & Brivot, Marion, 2018. "Carriers of ideas in accounting standard-setting and financialization: The role of epistemic communities," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 29-44.
    6. Neu, Dean & Saxton, Greg & Rahaman, Abu & Everett, Jeffery, 2019. "Twitter and social accountability: Reactions to the Panama Papers," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 38-53.
    7. Chiapello, Eve, 2017. "Critical accounting research and neoliberalism," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 47-64.
    8. Georgios Georgakopoulos & Ian Thomson, 2008. "Social reporting, engagements, controversies and conflict in an arena context," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(8), pages 1116-1143, October.
    9. Flower, John, 2015. "The International Integrated Reporting Council: A story of failure," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 1-17.
    10. Alawattage, Chandana & Wickramasinghe, Danture, 2008. "Appearance of accounting in a political hegemony," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 293-339.
    11. Eddy Akpomera, 2015. "International crude oil theft: elite predatory tendencies in Nigeria," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(143), pages 156-165, March.
    12. Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse, 2013. "Agonizing over engagement: SEA and the “death of environmentalism” debates," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 1-18.
    13. Thomson, Ian, 2015. "‘But does sustainability need capitalism or an integrated report’ a commentary on ‘The International Integrated Reporting Council: A story of failure’ by Flower, J," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 18-22.
    14. Tsang, Eric W. K., 2014. "Old and New," Management and Organization Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(03), pages 390-390, November.
    15. Mehrpouya, Afshin, 2015. "Instituting a transnational accountability regime: The case of Sovereign Wealth Funds and “GAPP”," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 15-36.
    16. Markus J. Milne & Suzana Grubnic, 2011. "Climate change accounting research: keeping it interesting and different," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(8), pages 948-977, October.
    17. Ahrens, Thomas & Chapman, Christopher S., 2006. "Doing qualitative field research in management accounting: Positioning data to contribute to theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 819-841, November.
    18. Jules Townshend, 2004. "Laclau and Mouffe's Hegemonic Project: The Story So Far," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 52, pages 269-288, June.
    19. Michael Klare & Daniel Volman, 2006. "America, China & the Scramble for Africa's Oil," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(108), pages 297-309, June.
    20. Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse, 2013. "Critical accounting and communicative action: On the limits of consensual deliberation," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 176-190.
    21. Andrew, Jane & Cahill, Damien, 2017. "Rationalising and resisting neoliberalism: The uneven geography of costs," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 12-28.
    22. Mercy Denedo & Ian Thomson & Akira Yonekura, 2017. "International advocacy NGOs, counter accounting, accountability and engagement," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(6), pages 1309-1343, August.
    23. Martin Kornberger & Dane Pflueger & Jan Mouritsen, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures : Accounting for platform organization," Post-Print hal-02312027, HAL.
    24. Crawford Spence, 2007. "Social and environmental reporting and hegemonic discourse," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(6), pages 855-882, October.
    25. Jules Townshend, 2004. "Laclau and Mouffe's Hegemonic Project: The Story So Far," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 52(2), pages 269-288, June.
    26. Brown, Judy & Tregidga, Helen, 2017. "Re-politicizing social and environmental accounting through Rancière: On the value of dissensus," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1-21.
    27. Sikka, Prem, 2015. "The hand of accounting and accountancy firms in deepening income and wealth inequalities and the economic crisis: Some evidence," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 46-62.
    28. Rob Gray & Jesse Dillard & Crawford Spence, 2009. "Social Accounting Research as If The World Matters," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(5), pages 545-573, September.
    29. Cooper, Christine, 2015. "Entrepreneurs of the self: The development of management control since 1976," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 14-24.
    30. Brown, Judy, 2009. "Democracy, sustainability and dialogic accounting technologies: Taking pluralism seriously," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 313-342.
    31. Pablo Archel & Javier Husillos & Carlos Larrinaga & Crawford Spence, 2009. "Social disclosure, legitimacy theory and the role of the state," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(8), pages 1284-1307, October.
    32. Zhang, Ying & Andrew, Jane, 2014. "Financialisation and the Conceptual Framework," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 17-26.
    33. Matias Laine & Eija Vinnari, 2017. "The transformative potential of counter accounts: a case study of animal rights activism," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(7), pages 1481-1510, September.
    34. Daniel Volman, 2003. "The Bush administration & African oil: the security implications of US energy policy," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(98), pages 573-584, December.
    35. Helen Tregidga, 2017. "“Speaking truth to power”: analysing shadow reporting as a form of shadow accounting," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(3), pages 510-533, March.
    36. Jeacle, Ingrid & Carter, Chris, 2011. "In TripAdvisor we trust: Rankings, calculative regimes and abstract systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 293-309.
    37. Ian Thomson & Colin Dey & Shona Russell, 2015. "Activism, arenas and accounts in conflicts over tobacco control," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(5), pages 809-845, June.
    38. Kiikpoye K. Aaron & John M. Patrick, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility patterns and conflicts in Nigeria’s oil-rich region," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 341-356, December.
    39. Harte, G. F. & Owen, D. L., 1987. "Fighting de-industrialisation: The role of local government social audits," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 123-141, March.
    40. Gray, Rob, 1992. "Accounting and environmentalism: An exploration of the challenge of gently accounting for accountability, transparency and sustainability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 399-425, July.
    41. Yee, Helen, 2009. "The re-emergence of the public accounting profession in China: A hegemonic analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 71-92.
    42. David Collison & Colin Dey & Gwen Hannah & Lorna Stevenson, 2010. "Anglo‐American capitalism: the role and potential role of social accounting," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(8), pages 956-981, October.
    43. Michela Arnaboldi & Cristiano Busco & Suresh Cuganesan, 2017. "Accounting, accountability, social media and big data: revolution or hype?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(4), pages 762-776, May.
    44. Spence, Crawford, 2009. "Social accounting's emancipatory potential: A Gramscian critique," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 205-227.
    45. Gray, Rob, 2002. "The social accounting project and Accounting Organizations and Society Privileging engagement, imaginings, new accountings and pragmatism over critique?," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 687-708, October.
    46. Dillard, Jesse & Roslender, Robin, 2011. "Taking pluralism seriously: Embedded moralities in management accounting and control systems," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 135-147.
    47. Kornberger, Martin & Pflueger, Dane & Mouritsen, Jan, 2017. "Evaluative infrastructures: Accounting for platform organization," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 79-95.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anesa, Mattia & Bressan, Alessandro, 2024. "SMEs tax minimization as shared responsibility," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    2. Pupovac, Sanja & Moerman, Lee, 2022. "Bringing Shell and Friends of the Earth on stage: A one-act spectacle of oil spills in the Niger Delta," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    3. Rodrigue, Michelle & Romi, Andrea M., 2022. "Environmental escalations to social inequities: Some reflections on the tumultuous state of Gaia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    4. Stacchezzini, Riccardo & Masiero, Eleonora & Lai, Alessandro, 2023. "Histories as counter-accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    5. Gilbert, Christine & Guénin, Henri, 2024. "The COVID-19 crisis and massive public debts: What should we expect?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    6. Riaz, Umair & Burton, Bruce & Fearfull, Anne, 2023. "Emotional propensities and the contemporary Islamic banking industry," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    7. Andrew, Jane & Baker, Max & Huang, Casey, 2023. "Data breaches in the age of surveillance capitalism: Do disclosures have a new role to play?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    8. Gregory D. Saxton & Dean Neu, 2022. "Twitter-Based Social Accountability Processes: The Roles for Financial Inscriptions-Based and Values-Based Messaging," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(4), pages 1041-1064, December.
    9. Tweedie, Jonathan, 2023. "The emancipatory potential of counter accounting: A Žižekian critique," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    10. Gilbert, Christine & Everett, Jeff, 2023. "Resistance, hegemony, and critical accounting interventions: Lessons from debates over government debt," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    11. Bigoni, Michele & Mohammed, Sideeq, 2023. "Critique is unsustainable: A polemic," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    12. Seny Kan, Konan A. & Agbodjo, Serge & Gandja, Serge V., 2021. "Accounting polycentricity in Africa: Framing an ‘accounting and development’ research agenda," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. George, Sendirella & Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse, 2023. "Social movement activists’ conceptions of political action and counter-accounting through a critical dialogic accounting and accountability lens," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Dillard, Jesse & Vinnari, Eija, 2019. "Critical dialogical accountability: From accounting-based accountability to accountability-based accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 16-38.
    3. Ruff, Katherine, 2022. "In support of making up users," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    4. Correa, Carmen & Laine, Matias & Larrinaga, Carlos, 2023. "Taking the world seriously: Autonomy, reflexivity and engagement research in social and environmental accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    5. Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse, 2013. "Agonizing over engagement: SEA and the “death of environmentalism” debates," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 1-18.
    6. Vinnari, Eija & Dillard, Jesse, 2016. "(ANT)agonistics: Pluralistic politicization of, and by, accounting and its technologies," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 25-44.
    7. Grisard, Claudine & Annisette, Marcia & Graham, Cameron, 2020. "Performative agency and incremental change in a CSR context," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    8. Tweedie, Jonathan, 2023. "The emancipatory potential of counter accounting: A Žižekian critique," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    9. Tregidga, Helen & Milne, Markus J., 2022. "Not at our table: Stakeholder exclusion and ant/agonistic engagements," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    10. Gallhofer, Sonja & Haslam, Jim, 2019. "Some reflections on the construct of emancipatory accounting: Shifting meaning and the possibilities of a new pragmatism," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    11. Jane Andrew & Max Baker, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting: The Last 40 Years and a Path to Sharing Future Insights," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 56(1), pages 35-65, March.
    12. O’Leary, Susan & Smith, David, 2020. "Moments of resistance: An internally persuasive view of performance and impact reports in non-governmental organizations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    13. Aresu, Simone & Monfardini, Patrizio, 2023. "Oppressed by consumerism: The emancipatory role of household accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    14. Brown, Judy & Tregidga, Helen, 2017. "Re-politicizing social and environmental accounting through Rancière: On the value of dissensus," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1-21.
    15. Alawattage, Chandana & Azure, John De-Clerk, 2021. "Behind the World Bank’s ringing declarations of “social accountability”: Ghana’s public financial management reform," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    16. Mäkelä, Hannele, 2013. "On the ideological role of employee reporting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 360-378.
    17. Brown, Judy, 2017. "Democratizing accounting: Reflections on the politics of “old” and “new” pluralisms," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 20-46.
    18. Sorola, Matthew, 2022. "Q methodology to conduct a critical study in accounting: A Q study on accountants’ perspectives of social and environmental reporting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    19. Islam, Muhammad Azizul & Deegan, Craig & Haque, Shamima, 2021. "Corporate human rights performance and moral power: A study of retail MNCs’ supply chains in Bangladesh," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    20. Blackburn, Nivea & Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse & Hooper, Val, 2014. "A dialogical framing of AIS–SEA design," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 83-101.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:82:y:2020:i:c:s0361368219300972. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/aos .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.