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Accounting for human rights: Doxic health and safety practices – The accounting lesson from ICL

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  • Cooper, Christine
  • Coulson, Andrea
  • Taylor, Phil

Abstract

This paper is concerned with a specific human right – the right to work in a safe environment. It sets out a case for developing a new form of account of health and safety in any organisational setting. It draws upon the theoretical insights of Pierre Bourdieu taking inspiration from his assertion that in order to understand the “logic” of the worlds we live in we need to immerse ourselves into the particularity of an empirical reality. In this case the paper, analyses a preventable industrial disaster which occurred in Glasgow, Scotland which killed nine people11Among the dead were Tracey McErlane, 27, a receptionist from Possilpark, Glasgow, who left behind a seven-month-old son, Ryan; Ann Trench, 34, a computer operator from Colston, who was to due to end 15 years of service with ICL with her last shift; Margaret Brownlie, 49, from Strathaven; Peter Ferguson, 52, from Renfrewshire; Annette Rosina Doyle 24, of Crowhill St., Glasgow; Thomas McAulay, 41, from Glasgow; Kenneth Murray, 45; Timothy Smith, 31; and the chief executive of the company, Stewart McColl, 60, whose daughter, Sheena, had her leg amputated after she was crushed by falling masonry. and injured 33 others. The paper unearths the underlying structures of symbolic violence of the UK State, the Health and Safety Executive and capital with respect to health and safety at work in the case. While dealing with one specific country (Scotland) and arguably an anomalous event we contend that Bourdieu's objective of constructing a special case of what is possible can equally be used to question health and safety regimes and other forms of symbolic violence across the globe.Bourdieu (1998, p. 2) “My entire scientific enterprise is indeed based upon the belief that the deepest logic of the social world can be grasped only if one plunges into the particularity of an empirical reality, historically located and dated, but with the objective of constructing it as a “special case of what is possible,” as Bachelard puts it, that is, as an exemplary case in a finite world of possible configurations.

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  • Cooper, Christine & Coulson, Andrea & Taylor, Phil, 2011. "Accounting for human rights: Doxic health and safety practices – The accounting lesson from ICL," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(8), pages 738-758.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:22:y:2011:i:8:p:738-758
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2011.07.001
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    9. Lee, Bill & Cassell, Catherine, 2017. "Facilitative reforms, democratic accountability, social accounting and learning representative initiatives," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 24-37.
    10. Cooper, Christine & Coulson, Andrea B., 2014. "Accounting activism and Bourdieu's ‘collective intellectual’ – Reflections on the ICL Case," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 237-254.
    11. Morales, Jérémy & Sponem, Samuel, 2017. "You too can have a critical perspective! 25 years of Critical Perspectives on Accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 149-166.
    12. Roslender, Robin & Marks, Abigail & Stevenson, Joanna, 2015. "Damned if you do, damned if you don’t: Conflicting perspectives on the virtues of accounting for people," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 43-55.
    13. Kuruppu, Chamara & Adhikari, Pawan & Gunarathna, Vijitha & Ambalangodage, Dayananda & Perera, Priyanga & Karunarathna, Chaminda, 2016. "Participatory budgeting in a Sri Lankan urban council: A practice of power and domination," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-17.
    14. Bottausci, Chiara & Robson, Keith, 2023. "“He Hears”: An essay celebrating the 25 year anniversary of The Audit Society," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    15. Cooper, Christine, 2015. "Accounting for the fictitious: A Marxist contribution to understanding accounting's roles in the financial crisis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 63-82.
    16. Matilal, Sumohon & Adhikari, Pawan, 2020. "Accounting in Bhopal: Making catastrophe," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    17. Passetti, Emilio & Cinquini, Lino & Marelli, Alessandro & Tenucci, Andrea, 2014. "Sustainability accounting in action: Lights and shadows in the Italian context," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 295-308.
    18. Ejiogu, Amanze & Ambituuni, Ambisisi & Ejiogu, Chibuzo, 2021. "Accounting for accounting’s role in the neoliberalization processes of social housing in England: A Bourdieusian perspective," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    19. Semeen, Homaira & Islam, Muhammad Azizul, 2021. "Social impact disclosure and symbolic power: Evidence from UK fair trade organizations," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    20. Alharthi, Amal & Cortese, Corinne & Moerman, Lee & Tanima, Farzana, 2022. "Surveillance capitalism in the middle east retail sector," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    21. 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.
    22. Cooper, Christine & Lapsley, Irvine, 2021. "Hillsborough: The fight for accountability," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    23. Walaa Wahid ElKelish*, 2023. "Accounting for Corporate Human Rights: Literature Review and Future Insights," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 33(2), pages 203-226, June.
    24. Sargiacomo, Massimo & Ianni, Luca & Everett, Jeff, 2014. "Accounting for suffering: Calculative practices in the field of disaster relief," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(7), pages 652-669.
    25. Gibassier, Delphine, 2017. "From écobilan to LCA: The elite’s institutional work in the creation of an environmental management accounting tool," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 36-58.

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