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Accounting assemblages, desire, and the body without organs

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  • Dean Neu
  • Jeff Everett
  • Abu Shiraz Rahaman

Abstract

Purpose - This paper uses the ideas and concepts of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and aims to to examine how accounting works in the context of international development. Design/methodology/approach - A case study approach within El Salvador is used. Data sources include archival documents, 35 semi‐structured interviews with field participants, and participant observations. The focus is on the activities of the Inter‐American Development Bank (IDB) and the United Nations Development Agency (UNDP) in the country of El Salvador, showing how complex assemblages of people, technologies such as accounting, and discourses such as accountability come to claim or “territorialize” particular physical and discursive spaces. Findings - The analysis highlights how accounting and its associated actors further the development aspirations of loan beneficiaries; yet at the same time contribute to the “over‐organization” of these actors' social space. Originality/value - The paper illustrates that the concepts of Deleuze and Guattari – assemblage, desire, Bodies without Organs, and lines of flight to name a few – open up for consideration and analysis a series of field‐specific processes that have previously been largely un‐explored within the accounting literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Dean Neu & Jeff Everett & Abu Shiraz Rahaman, 2009. "Accounting assemblages, desire, and the body without organs," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(3), pages 319-350, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:aaajpp:v:22:y:2009:i:3:p:319-350
    DOI: 10.1108/09513570910945642
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    7. Duval, Anne-Marie & Gendron, Yves & Roux-Dufort, Christophe, 2015. "Exhibiting nongovernmental organizations: Reifying the performance discourse through framing power," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 31-53.
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    11. Martinez, Daniel E. & Pflueger, Dane & Palermo, Tommaso, 2022. "Accounting and the territorialization of markets: A field study of the Colorado cannabis market," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
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    13. Vassili Joannides & Nicolas Berland & D. T. Wickramasinghe, 2010. "Post-Hofstede diversity/cultural studies: what contributions to accounting knowledge?," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-00676570, HAL.
    14. Kraus, Kalle & Kennergren, Cecilia & von Unge, Amelie, 2017. "The interplay between ideological control and formal management control systems – A case study of a non-governmental organisation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 42-59.
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    Keywords

    Accounting; El Salvador; Banks; Loans;
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