IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/aaajpp/v24y2011i2p229-249.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Justification and accounting: applying sociology of worth to accounting research

Author

Listed:
  • Marcia Annisette
  • Alan J. Richardson

Abstract

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to introduce and illustrate the insights of the sociology of worth as advanced by sociologist Luc Boltanski and his collaborator economist/statistician Laurent Thévenot in their works, including their path‐breaking bookDe la justificationpublished in 1991. Design/methodology/approach - The paper explores the basic tenets of this “new sociology” and draws on it to render a reinterpretation of Ansari and Euske's study of cost accounting in a military depot. Findings - The sociology of worth complements extant sociological approaches to accounting by providing a language and a conceptual tool‐box for understanding the multiple rationalities in which accounting is implicated. In addition, given its pragmatic micro level approach to accounting, it has the potential to act as a bridge between institutional theory and practice theory. Originality/value - This paper is the first known to render an extensive discussion of Boltanski and Thévenot's work in the accounting literature and to apply insights from this work to accounting research.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcia Annisette & Alan J. Richardson, 2011. "Justification and accounting: applying sociology of worth to accounting research," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(2), pages 229-249, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:aaajpp:v:24:y:2011:i:2:p:229-249
    DOI: 10.1108/09513571111100690
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09513571111100690/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09513571111100690/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/09513571111100690?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. Eve Chiapello & Luc Boltanski, 2005. "The New Spirit of Capitalism," Post-Print hal-00678024, HAL.
    2. Ahrens, Thomas & Chapman, Christopher S., 2007. "Management accounting as practice," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 32(1-2), pages 1-27.
    3. Eve, CHIAPELLO & Annick, BOURGUIGNON, 2003. "The role of Criticism in the Dynamics of Performance Evaluation Systems," HEC Research Papers Series 777, HEC Paris.
    4. Isabelle Huault & V. Perret & S. Charreire-Petit, 2007. "Management," Post-Print halshs-00337676, HAL.
    5. Eve Chiapello & Luc Boltanski, 2005. "The New Spirit of Capitalism," Post-Print hal-00680089, HAL.
    6. W. Richard Scott, 2003. "Institutional carriers: reviewing modes of transporting ideas over time and space and considering their consequences," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 12(4), pages 879-894, August.
    7. Robson, Keith, 1992. "Accounting numbers as "inscription": Action at a distance and the development of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(7), pages 685-708, October.
    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. Richardson, Alan J., 2015. "Quantitative research and the critical accounting project," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 67-77.
    2. Kilfoyle, Eksa & Richardson, Alan J. & MacDonald, Laura D., 2013. "Vernacular accountings: Bridging the cognitive and the social in the analysis of employee-generated accounting systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 382-396.
    3. repec:eme:aaajpp:v:24:y:2011:i:2:p:140-160 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. 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.
    5. Carlos Ramirez, 2013. "‘We are being Pilloried for Something, We Did Not Even Know We Had Done Wrong!’ Quality Control and Orders of Worth in the British Audit Profession," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(5), pages 845-869, July.
    6. German Varas & Omar Sabaj & Clay Spinuzzi & Miguel Fuentes & Valentin Gerard & Paula Cabezas, 2023. "Value Creation in Start-Up Discourse: Linking Pitch and Venture Through Logics of Justification," Post-Print hal-03972594, HAL.
    7. 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).
    8. Ang, Soon Yong & Wickramasinghe, Danture, 2023. "Ethical disputes, coordinating acts and NGO accountability: Evidence from an NGO river-care programme in Malaysia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    9. Paul Andon & Jane Baxter & Wai Fong Chua, 2015. "Accounting for Stakeholders and Making Accounting Useful," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(7), pages 986-1002, November.
    10. Passetti, Emilio & Rinaldi, Leonardo, 2020. "Micro-processes of justification and critique in a water sustainability controversy: Examining the establishment of moral legitimacy through accounting," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(3).
    11. Humphrey, Christopher & Gendron, Yves, 2015. "What is going on? The sustainability of accounting academia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 47-66.
    12. van Helden, Jan & Caperchione, Eugenio & Pattaro, Anna Francesca, 2023. "Use and non-use of accounting information: The case of controversial projects in public and non-profit settings," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    13. Richardson, Alan J. & Kilfoyle, Eksa, 2016. "Accounting institutions as truce: The emergence of accounting in the governance of transnational mail flows," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 32-47.
    14. Annisette, Marcia & Trivedi, Viswanath Umashanker, 2013. "Globalization, paradox and the (un)making of identities: Immigrant Chartered Accountants of India in Canada," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 1-29.
    15. Kracman, Kimberly, 2022. "Code as constitution: The negotiation of a uniform accounting code for U.S. railway corporations and the moral justification of stakeholder claims on wealth," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    16. Erb, Carsten & Pelger, Christoph, 2015. "“Twisting words”? A study of the construction and reconstruction of reliability in financial reporting standard-setting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 13-40.
    17. Perkiss, Stephanie & Moerman, Lee, 2020. "Hurricane Katrina: Exploring justice and fairness as a sociology of common good(s)," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 67.
    18. Chenhall, Robert H. & Hall, Matthew & Smith, David, 2013. "Performance measurement, modes of evaluation and the development of compromising accounts," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51294, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    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. Vivien Blanchet & Véronique Magista & Véronique Perret, 2013. "Stop filling in the gaps! Rethinking organizational justice through problematization," Post-Print halshs-00844204, HAL.
    2. Quattrone, Paolo, 2009. "Books to be practiced: Memory, the power of the visual, and the success of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 85-118, January.
    3. Berland, Nicolas & Chiapello, Eve, 2009. "Criticisms of capitalism, budgeting and the double enrolment: Budgetary control rhetoric and social reform in France in the 1930s and 1950s," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 28-57, January.
    4. repec:dau:papers:123456789/6741 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Mouritsen, Jan & Hansen, Allan & Hansen, Carsten Ørts, 2009. "Short and long translations: Management accounting calculations and innovation management," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(6-7), pages 738-754, August.
    6. Jørgensen, Brian & Messner, Martin, 2010. "Accounting and strategising: A case study from new product development," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 184-204, February.
    7. 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.
    8. Chenhall, Robert H. & Hall, Matthew & Smith, David, 2013. "Performance measurement, modes of evaluation and the development of compromising accounts," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 51294, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    9. Mostafa Jazayeri & Danture Wickramsinghe & Tharusha Gooneratne, 2011. "Convergence versus divergence of performance measurement systems," Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 8(3), pages 292-314, August.
    10. Guillet de Monthoux, Pierre, 2015. "Art, Philosophy, and Business: turns to speculative realism in European management scholarship," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 161-167.
    11. Hélène Peton & Antoine Blanc, 2009. "Deinstitutionalization as a cumulative process: the role of successive struggles in the case of a "magic mineral"," Post-Print halshs-00672416, HAL.
    12. Bay, Charlotta, 2018. "Makeover accounting: Investigating the meaning-making practices of financial accounts," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 44-54.
    13. Bikbov, Alexander, 2021. "Which Place for Radical Trial in Genetic Structuralism and in Pragmatic Approach?," MPRA Paper 117774, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Paolo Borghi & Anna Mori & Renata Semenza, 2018. "Self-employed professionals in the European labour market. A comparison between Italy, Germany and the UK," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 24(4), pages 405-419, November.
    15. Meg Holden & Andy Scerri & Azadeh Hadizadeh Esfahani, 2015. "Justifying Redevelopment ‘Failures' Within Urban ‘Success Stories': Dispute, Compromise, and a New Test of Urbanity," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 451-470, May.
    16. Justin O'Connor, 2015. "Intermediaries and Imaginaries in the Cultural and Creative Industries," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(3), pages 374-387, March.
    17. Kirsty Morrin, 2018. "Tensions in Teaching Character: How the ‘Entrepreneurial Character’ is Reproduced, ‘Refused’, and Negotiated in an English Academy School," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 23(2), pages 459-476, June.
    18. Kevin Gibson, 2011. "Toward an Intermediate Position on Corporate Moral Personhood," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 101(1), pages 71-81, March.
    19. Kilfoyle, Eksa & Richardson, Alan J. & MacDonald, Laura D., 2013. "Vernacular accountings: Bridging the cognitive and the social in the analysis of employee-generated accounting systems," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 382-396.
    20. Bernard Cova, 2021. "The new frontier of consumer experiences: escape through pain," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 11(1), pages 60-69, June.
    21. Vassili Joannides & Nicolas Berland, 2010. "Keeping Accounts By The Book: The Revelation(S) Of Accounting," Post-Print hal-00477759, HAL.

    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:eme:aaajpp:v:24:y:2011:i:2:p:229-249. 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: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.