Accounting history as a local discipline: The Case of the Italian-speaking literature (1869-2008)

The aim of the paper is to demonstrate how Italian-language accounting history was one example of a local accounting discipline. For this purpose, we reviewed all historical publications edited from 1869 to 2008 and conducted an in-depth analysis on the database we built. Evidence about authorships, dates of publication, publication forms, periods of study, issues and approaches, were collected. The results show many changes in the publishing patterns of accounting history research. We also explore how the schools of accounting thought, the assessment of historical research in the recruitment system, the stimuli and opportunities coming from the Italian Society of Accounting History, the role of practitioners in conducting and financing research about the origin of their profession could have influenced authorship, publication forms, and the issues and themes during the century and a half after the Unification of Italy

Accounting history as a local discipline: The Case of the Italian-speaking literature (1869-2008)

The aim of the paper is to demonstrate how Italian-language accounting history was one example of a local accounting discipline. For this purpose, we reviewed all historical publications edited from 1869 to 2008 and conducted an in-depth analysis on the database we built. Evidence about authorships, dates of publication, publication forms, periods of study, issues and approaches, were collected. The results show many changes in the publishing patterns of accounting history research. We also explore how the schools of accounting thought, the assessment of historical research in the recruitment system, the stimuli and opportunities coming from the Italian Society of Accounting History, the role of practitioners in conducting and financing research about the origin of their profession could have influenced authorship, publication forms, and the issues and themes during the century and a half after the Unification of Italy

Development of accounting in Europe in the era of scientific management: The Italian engineering conglomerate, Ansaldo, 1918-1940

Utilizing archival materials, this paper examines the case of the Genoa-based firm, Ansaldo, which, by the early decades of the 20th century, had emerged as a major force in the inter-related fields of engineering, shipbuilding, and metal and steel manufacture in italy. following financial problems immediately after World War i and during the 1920s, the company was subsequently taken under the umbrella of the italian state\u27s financial holding unit, the institute for industrial reconstruction (iri), in the 1930s. utilizing lewin\u27s theory of change as a framework for investigating change in management accounting, the paper examines the internal and external factors influencing the development of cost/management accounting at the company. these are also examined against the background of the development of scientific management, both in italy and elsewhere

Accounting and Psychiatric Power in Italy: The Royal Insane Hospital of Turin in the 19th Century

This paper identifies the importance of accounting practices in the successful operation of the Royal Insane Hospital of Turin, prior to the Italian unification, to show the importance of the lunatic asylum to our understanding of the way in which power is sustained by the State and the dependence of this process on the information and discourses created by accounting practices. The study is informed by insights from Michel Foucault's work on lunatic asylums and psychiatric power. Accounting practices of the Royal Insane Hospital of Turin allowed the State as a major contributor to the funding of the asylum to control and monitor the cost of providing the necessary facilities and care for patients. Accounting allowed the hospital to be managed more efficiently which, most importantly, allowed the hospital to provide the support and facilities which were essential for creating the environment required for new medical practices in the treatment of the mentally unwell at a time when the role of doctors was becoming increasingly important. Accounting is also shown to have played a prominent role in supporting the political and social legitimation of the institution and its claim for public and private support. Critical to this process was the social and political importance of the statistics produced by the doctors of the lunatic asylum

Operationalizing expulsion. Jewish accountants in Fascist Italy, 1938-1943

In contrast to the conventional focus on social exclusion in studies of the accountancy profession, this paper examines the race-based expulsion of a group of established practitioners. It does so by analysing the removal of Jews from the profession in Fascist Italy. Drawing on Foucault’s concepts of biopolitics and race, and an array of primary and secondary sources, the paper explores the apparatuses of biopower deployed to cleanse the professional population of Jews. These included anti-Semitic legislation to define the offending population, a census to identify and locate it, and bureaucratic mechanisms to secure its removal. It is shown that following their fascistization, accountancy organisations in Italy functioned as agencies for the purification of the profession. Although the object to ‘kill’ through expulsion was activated in most cases, the existence of transitional ‘let live’ provisions indicated the complexities of activating a biopolitical project on the basis of biological racism. When parts of Italy came under German control in 1943, ‘indirect murder’ through expulsion was supplanted by the actual murder of a number of Jewish accountants

Misfiring and still succeeding: Seeking success in megaprojects amidst changing regulatory environments

This paper analyses the complexities involved in planning and managing infrastructural megaprojects under changing regulatory environments. Through the case of the megaprojects by Autostrade, a motorway construction company, the paper illustrates that the notion of success is problematic and not easily defined when changes in regulations by regulatory bodies become sources of overflows, inducing changes in plans that had been previously agreed upon. Since regulations are dynamic, there may be a limit to which the initial planning parameters are legitimate benchmarks for the actualized megaproject’s cost, time, and quality. It follows that a megaproject’s success can result in orchestrating actions and reactions that involve both the capability of envisioning boundaries and demolishing them. This has severe implications for the notion of success itself, which does not easily fall into the traditional perspective of goal fulfillment but rather is linked to the inability to perceive the project’s incompleteness

Popular Culture and Totalitarianism: Accounting for Propaganda in Italy under the Fascist Regime (1934-1945)

Throughout history both democratic and totalitarian States have sought to take advantage of the possible political contributions of art and culture. This study presents the first in-depth historical study of the relationship between accounting and culture in a totalitarian State; the Fascist State in Italy between 1934 and 1945. Accounting documents in the form of budgets and reports provided by the Fascist government, along with other accounts prepared by the Fascists, were used to build a narrative that identified the ways in which the Fascist regime sought to win the committed allegiance of the Italian people in unseen ways. Accounting documents and the cultural activities to which they relate show the ways in which the Fascists developed their own conception of popular culture and sought control of cultural organisations and intellectuals in spreading their values and beliefs through cultural artefacts. The study documents the importance of accounting records as a less obvious, often underscored source for social history. It also adds to the growing literature that has explored the place of accounting in totalitarian regimes by focusing on the unexplored context of Fascist popular culture and identifying the contributions of accounting to the management of propaganda activities

Accounting for Madness: The Real Case dei Matti of Palermo 1824-1860

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand the role played by accounting in managing an early nineteenth century lunatic asylum in Palermo, Italy. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is informed by Foucault’s studies of lunatic asylums and his work on governmentality which gave prominence to the role of statistics, the “science of the State”. Findings:This paper identifies a number of roles played by accounting in the management of the lunatic asylum studied. Most importantly, information which formed the basis of accounting reports was used to describe, classify and give visibility and measurability to the “deviance” of the insane. It also legitimated the role played by lunatic asylums, as entrusted to them in post-Napoleonic early nineteenth century society, and was a tool to mediate with the public authorities to provide adequate resources for the institution to operate. Research limitations/implications: This paper encourages accounting scholars to engage more widely with socio-historical research that will encompass organisations such as lunatic asylums. Originality/value: This paper provides, for the first time, a case of accounting applied to a lunatic asylum from a socio-historical perspective

The roles of accounting in agro-pastoral settings: The case of the landed estates of Prince Sambiase in the mid-eighteenth century

International literature on agricultural accounting has mostly focused on Anglo-Saxon settings and sought to document the development of accounting tools in large landed estates or to elucidate the rise of early modern accounting practices. However, the investigation of the roles accounting can play in the agricultural domain beyond its traditional function of promoting efficiency and rational decision making is yet to receive a significant level of interest. Informed by Miller and Power’s (2013) analysis of the functions accounting can have in different socio-institutional contexts, the paper adds to extant literature on agricultural accounting by considering the non-Anglo-Saxon context of Italy. It analyzes the roles of accounting in Prince Sambiase’s properties, in Southern Italy, in the mid-eighteenth century. Prince Sambiase was the owner of large estates in Calabria, a socially and economically underdeveloped area. Agricultural and pastoral activities were managed in a semi-feudal setting, combining serfdom and waged labor, barter and monetary exchange, consumption and production. Based on primary and secondary sources, this paper focuses on the property lists, inventories, the double-entry bookkeeping system, and workers control practices used on Prince Sambiase’s estates to document how they were employed as territorializing, adjudicating, mediating and subjectivizing practices

Accounting and the Banality of Evil: Expropriation of Jewish Property in Fascist Italy (1939-1945)

Purpose – This study identifies the significant role of accounting in the expropriation of Jewish real estate after the enforcement of race laws under Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime in Italy. Design/methodology/approach – Hannah Arendt’s understanding of government bureaucracy in 20th century totalitarian regimes informs the research which draws upon a wide range of primary sources. Findings – Implementation of the program of expropriation was the responsibility of a government body, EGELI, which was created specifically for this purpose. The language of accounting provided the means to disguise the nature and brutality of the process and allow bureaucrats to be removed from the consequences of their actions. Accounting reports from EGELI to the Ministry of Finance confirmed each year that those who worked in EGELI were devoted to its mission as an agency of the Fascist State. Research limitations/implications – The paper refers to the Jews expropriation from the Fascist institutions point of view while the Jews’ documents and their economic, social and human lives were not considered. It paved the way to further research about Jews discrimination and persecution in European countries other than Nazi Germany from an Accounting History viewpoint. Originality/value – The paper is the first contribution coming from Italy about the role played by Accounting and Accountants in Jews persecution under the Fascism