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“Who am I? Where are we? Where do we go from here?” Marxism, voice, representation, and synthesis

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  • James, Kieran

Abstract

Recently Kim (2008) and Chua (1998) have warned critical accounting researchers of the dangers involved in oral history research in accounting involving a privileged researcher(s) and a cultural or racial “other”. The end result of this research often is that the researcher gets a promotion and a pay rise whilst the others remain in the same position that they were in before the research. These warnings are extremely important and should be the source of much personal reflection and even agonizing on the part of those researchers that do this type of research. However, I argue that Kim's negative tone, whilst justified in a polemic, should not discourage researchers to the extent that they shy away from compassionate explorations of topics involving the other in favour of “safer” capital markets or other mainstream accounting research. Those researchers writing from a Marxist perspective will continue to see the primary source of exploitation as the capitalist production process and its extraction of surplus-value from the workers without payment. This does not mean that such researchers somehow “ignore race” although some types of racist acts Marxism finds hard to explain satisfactorily. To illustrate these arguments, I present a case study of the legendary 1970s punk musician and philosopher Joe Strummer of the Clash to suggest how a compassionate and authentic individual can meaningfully and boldly address issues of the other and the exploitation that they face within a Marxist framework. The maturation and increased sophistication of Strummer's lyrics by 1978 suggest that young artists (and researchers) need to be permitted the opportunity to make mistakes and to grow as part of their own existentialist personal journeys.

Suggested Citation

  • James, Kieran, 2010. "“Who am I? Where are we? Where do we go from here?” Marxism, voice, representation, and synthesis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(8), pages 696-710.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:21:y:2010:i:8:p:696-710
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2010.06.008
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kim, Soon Nam, 2008. "Whose voice is it anyway? Rethinking the oral history method in accounting research on race, ethnicity and gender," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 1346-1369.
    2. Boyce, Gordon, 2008. "The social relevance of ethics education in a global(ising) era: From individual dilemmas to systemic crises," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 255-290.
    3. Kieran James & Christopher Tolliday, 2009. "Structural change in the music industry: a Marxist critique of public statements made by members of Metallica during the lawsuit against Napster," International Journal of Critical Accounting, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(1/2), pages 144-176.
    4. Brown, Judy, 2009. "Democracy, sustainability and dialogic accounting technologies: Taking pluralism seriously," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 313-342.
    5. James, Kieran, 2009. "“This is England”: Punk rock's realist/idealist dialectic and its implications for critical accounting education," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 127-145.
    6. Cooper, Christine & Catchpowle, Lesley, 2009. "US imperialism in action," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(6), pages 716-734.
    7. Ezzamel, Mahmoud & Xiao, Jason Zezhong & Pan, Aixiang, 2007. "Political ideology and accounting regulation in China," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(7-8), pages 669-700.
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    1. Upton, David R. & Arrington, C. Edward, 2012. "Implicit racial prejudice against African-Americans in balanced scorecard performance evaluations," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 281-297.
    2. Garry D. Carnegie & Christopher J. Napier, 2012. "Accounting's past, present and future: the unifying power of history," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 25(2), pages 328-369, February.
    3. Annisette, Marcia & Prasad, Ajnesh, 2017. "Critical accounting research in hyper-racial times," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 5-19.

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