IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/crpeac/v92y2023ics1045235421000812.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

NGOs, public accountability, and critical accounting education: Making data speak

Author

Listed:
  • Pazzi, Silvia
  • Svetlova, Ekaterina

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to provide theoretical and empirical insights into NGO accountability in the context of public sector accounting. We present a case study of two advocacy Italian NGOs which act as informational surrogates in the accountability relationship between local governments and the civic public. We extend the concept of surrogate accountability by integrating accounting education as one of its features. Alongside making data accessible, NGOs in our case explain accounting terms and organise educational events. By doing so, they aim to “repair” the weak information link in the accountability mechanism of local governments.

Suggested Citation

  • Pazzi, Silvia & Svetlova, Ekaterina, 2023. "NGOs, public accountability, and critical accounting education: Making data speak," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:92:y:2023:i:c:s1045235421000812
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2021.102362
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235421000812
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.cpa.2021.102362?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. Enrico Bracci & Christopher Humphrey & Jodie Moll & Ileana Steccolini, 2015. "Public sector accounting, accountability and austerity: more than balancing the books?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(6), pages 878-908, August.
    2. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-03-2016-2468 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Rob Gray & Andrew Brennan & Jeff Malpas, 2014. "New accounts: Towards a reframing of social accounting," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(4), pages 258-273, December.
    4. Contrafatto, M. & Thomson, I. & Monk, E.A., 2015. "Peru, mountains and los niños: Dialogic action, accounting and sustainable transformation," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 117-136.
    5. Tommaso Rondinella & Elisabetta Segre & Duccio Zola, 2017. "Participative Processes for Measuring Progress: Deliberation, Consultation and the Role of Civil Society," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 130(3), pages 959-982, February.
    6. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-08-2013-1439 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. 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.
    8. Rob Gray & Jan Bebbington & David Collison, 2006. "NGOs, civil society and accountability: making the people accountable to capital," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 19(3), pages 319-348, May.
    9. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-06-2015-2090 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Gray, Rob & Brennan, Andrew & Malpas, Jeff, 2014. "New accounts: Towards a reframing of social accounting," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 258-273.
    11. repec:eme:aaaj00:09513579710178124 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Oana Mihaela Apostol, 2015. "A project for Romania? The role of the civil society’s counter-accounts in facilitating democratic change in society," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(2), pages 210-241, February.
    13. Jan van Helden & Christoph Reichard, 2019. "Making sense of the users of public sector accounting information and their needs," Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 31(4), pages 478-495, November.
    14. Rob Gray & Jan Bebbington & David Collison, 2006. "NGOs, civil society and accountability: making the people accountable to capital," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 19(3), pages 319-348, April.
    15. Carmela Barbera & Mariafrancesca Sicilia & Ileana Steccolini, 2016. "What Mr. Rossi Wants in Participatory Budgeting: Two R’s (Responsiveness and Representation) and Two I’s (Inclusiveness and Interaction)," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(13), pages 1088-1100, November.
    16. Carolyn Cordery & Ataur Rahman Belal & Ian Thomson, 2019. "NGO accounting and accountability: past, present and future," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 1-15, January.
    17. 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.
    18. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-03-2013-1245 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Irvine Lapsley, 2009. "New Public Management: The Cruellest Invention of the Human Spirit?1," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 45(1), pages 1-21, March.
    20. Oana Mihaela Apostol, 2015. "A project for Romania? The role of the civil society’s counter-accounts in facilitating democratic change in society," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(2), pages 210-241, February.
    21. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-07-2012-01057 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Laure Célérier & Luis Emilio Cuenca Botey, 2015. "Participatory budgeting at a community level in Porto Alegre: a Bourdieusian interpretation," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(5), pages 739-772, June.
    23. 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.
    24. Jean Shaoul, 1997. "The power of accounting: reflecting on water privatization?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(3), pages 382-405, August.
    25. 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.
    26. Bay, Charlotta & Catasús, Bino & Johed, Gustav, 2014. "Situating financial literacy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 36-45.
    27. 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.
    28. Maria Isabel Brun-Martos & Irvine Lapsley, 2017. "Democracy, governmentality and transparency: participatory budgeting in action," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(7), pages 1006-1021, August.
    29. Enrico Bracci & Christopher Humphrey & Jodie Moll & Ileana Steccolini, 2015. "Public sector accounting, accountability and austerity: more than balancing the books?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(6), pages 878-908, August.
    30. Lucia Biondi & Enrico Bracci, 2018. "Sustainability, Popular and Integrated Reporting in the Public Sector: A Fad and Fashion Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-16, August.
    31. Rose, Nikolas, 1991. "Governing by numbers: Figuring out democracy," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(7), pages 673-692.
    32. 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).
    33. Brown, Judy, 2009. "Democracy, sustainability and dialogic accounting technologies: Taking pluralism seriously," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 313-342.
    34. Belal, Ataur Rahman & Cooper, Stuart M. & Khan, Niaz Ahmed, 2015. "Corporate environmental responsibility and accountability: What chance in vulnerable Bangladesh?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 44-58.
    35. Gloria Agyemang & Brendan O’Dwyer & Jeffrey Unerman, 2019. "NGO accountability: retrospective and prospective academic contributions," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(8), pages 2353-2366, July.
    36. 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.
    37. Laurence Ferry & Peter Murphy, 2018. "What about Financial Sustainability of Local Government!—A Critical Review of Accountability, Transparency, and Public Assurance Arrangements in England during Austerity," International Journal of Public Administration, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(8), pages 619-629, June.
    38. Laure Célérier & Luis Emilio Cuenca Botey, 2015. "Participatory budgeting at a community level in Porto Alegre: a Bourdieusian interpretation," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(5), pages 739-772, June.
    39. Nyamori, Robert Ochoki & Lawrence, Stewart R. & Perera, Hector B., 2012. "Revitalising local democracy: A social capital analysis in the context of a New Zealand local authority," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 572-594.
    40. repec:eme:aaaj00:09513570610670325 is not listed on IDEAS
    41. Eugenio Anessi-Pessina & Carmela Barbera & Cecilia Langella & Francesca Manes-Rossi & Alessandro Sancino & Mariafrancesca Sicilia & Ileana Steccolini, 2020. "Reconsidering public budgeting after the COVID-19 outbreak: key lessons and future challenges," Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(5), pages 957-965, October.
    42. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-06-2018-3507 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Martinez, Daniel & Himick, Darlene, 2023. "Accounting in (direct) action: Prefiguring emancipation in accounting research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    3. Jittima Wichianrak & Tehmina Khan & David Teh & Steven Dellaportas, 2023. "Critical Perspectives of NGOs on Voluntary Corporate Environmental Reporting: Thai Public Listed Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-24, April.
    4. Aresu, Simone & Monfardini, Patrizio, 2023. "Oppressed by consumerism: The emancipatory role of household accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    5. Tweedie, Jonathan, 2023. "The emancipatory potential of counter accounting: A Žižekian critique," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    6. Perkiss, Stephanie & Bernardi, Cristiana & Dumay, John & Haslam, Jim, 2021. "A sticky chocolate problem: Impression management and counter accounts in the shaping of corporate image," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    7. Scobie, Matthew & Lee, Bill & Smyth, Stewart, 2023. "Grounded accountability and Indigenous self-determination," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    8. 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).
    9. Stacchezzini, Riccardo & Masiero, Eleonora & Lai, Alessandro, 2023. "Histories as counter-accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    10. 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.
    11. Lee, Bill & Carlisle, Liam, 2024. "Interpreting an escape from an eviction trap as a social account: A Gramscian reading of a credit union’s policies in support of social housing tenants," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    12. Irvine, Helen & Moerman, Lee, 2017. "Gambling with the public sphere: Accounting’s contribution to debate on social issues," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 35-52.
    13. 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.
    14. Muhammad Azizul Islam & Craig Deegan & Rob Gray, 2018. "Social compliance audits and multinational corporation supply chain: evidence from a study of the rituals of social audits," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 190-224, February.
    15. Gómez-Villegas, Mauricio & Ariza-Buenaventura, Danilo, 2024. "Accounting and social mobilization: The counter accounts of the university student movement in Colombia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    16. Contrafatto, M. & Thomson, I. & Monk, E.A., 2015. "Peru, mountains and los niños: Dialogic action, accounting and sustainable transformation," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 117-136.
    17. 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).
    18. Cazenave, Bruno & Morales, Jeremy, 2024. "Against new humanitarian management: Prefigurative accounting in the humanitarian field," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    19. Clément Feger & Laurent Mermet, 2017. "A blueprint towards accounting for the management of ecosystems," Post-Print hal-01930913, HAL.
    20. Kingston, Kylie L. & Furneaux, Craig & de Zwaan, Laura & Alderman, Lyn, 2023. "Avoiding the accountability ‘sham-ritual’: An agonistic approach to beneficiaries’ participation in evaluation within nonprofit organisations," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

    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:crpeac:v:92:y:2023:i:c:s1045235421000812. 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: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/critical-perspectives-on-accounting/ .

    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.