The prospects for environmental accounting and accountability in China

Foucault’s ideas on episteme change are used to help understand change taking place in China from the “industrial civilization” to an “ecological civilization”. If episteme change is taking place this could be reflected in the philosophies and attitudes of Chinese accountants and their environmental accounting work will be developing. The conclusions are that: China is slowly moving towards an ecological civilisation; based around the thinking of Chinese accountants an epistemic change is in evidence in tandem with an emerging interest in ancient Chinese philosophy; Chinese accountants’ engagement with environmental accounting and accountability is evidence of reduced specialisation

An examination of Chinese responses to sustainability accountability: the move towards ecological civilization from a Foucauldian episteme-change perspective

This paper considers that the contingencies in place in China around sustainability are unique for a major emerging economy. Chinese actors in the sustainability network are dominated by government, not corporations, and the links to ancient Chinese philosophy, whilst not immediately apparent, do persist. Furthermore, China is the first major economic power to commit to a new developmental direction, to become an ecological civilization. To study this situation, this paper focuses on providing both theoretical insight and empirical findings to answer the question – “Can China move to new accountability for sustainability based on ecological civilization?” Much of the existing research on Chinese responses to accountability for sustainability has been based on corporate responses. Because of the high profile of the authoritarian Chinese government, this study extends this analysis to political regions which are based on Chinese provinces and provincial environmental protection agencies. Foucault’s insights into episteme change are used to understand sustainability accountability in the Chinese context and to represent findings in a new development model. This model is explained with regard to a transition from the Modern to an emerging episteme represented by the ecological civilisation concept now adopted by the Chinese government. Documentary analysis is used to provide key themes and evidence. The findings are that China does have a unique opportunity to change from the existing industrial Modern civilization to an ecological civilization and that existing accountability for sustainability evidence demonstrates that this change is already taking place

Critical commentary: a response to comments made regarding "Changed rules theory and the evolution of accountancy"

Birkin et al. (1997) applied new arguments about the evolution of life on this planet to the evolution of accountancy and derived prospects from these new arguments. The arguments were based on discoveries made in the Burgess Shale as reported and explicated by Gould (1991). In particular, the Birkin et al. (1997) paper indicated that the use made of Social Darwinism within accountancy was incorrect according to these new arguments about evolution. The comments made regarding this paper claimed that Social Darwinism and the new arguments about evolution were not incompatible, that several errors of attribution were made and that the Birkin et al. (1997) paper failed to show that Darwin's theory of natural selection was incorrect. This response reveals how those comments were based on a misreading of the Birkin et al. (1997) paper and a misinterpretation of the fossil evidence of the Burgess Shale

Organisational legitimacy and stakeholder information provision

One interpretation of the concept of organizational legitimacy is that it stems from the cultural values of society, and suggests that businesses operate under a mandate that may be withdrawn if organizations are seen not to be doing the 'right' things. This suggests there is something in the nature of a principal-agent relationship in existence, and that some form of accountability is then owed by the agent (the organization) to the principal (society). This paper seeks to investigate the nature of this accountability, distinguishing between the accountability which exists towards those elements of society with which an organization has a contractual relationship, and those where it does not. Adopting a pluralist stance, stakeholder theory is then used to illustrate the possible nature of both the form of legitimacy relationship extant, and of the accountability that the principal might expect of the agent

Current issues of sustainable production, eco-supply chains and eco-logistics for sustainable development

This paper discusses the current issues on sustainable development in the global market in general and focuses the initiatives particularly related to sustainable production, green innovations and practices and eco-supply chain and eco-logistics. Government, enterprises and individual initiatives towards sustainable development are explored. Cases from around the world are included to highlight the successes, initiatives and most important of all the increasing awareness of the need to be eco-friendly at all levels. Earlier research has omitted important issues when looking at the global level, and hence a holistic perspective is required to gear the effort of sustainable development and its integration to the existing 'organisational structure'. This research suggests future directions for research into the integration of sustainable development in existing organisational structures.sustainable production; green innovations; eco-supply chains; eco-logistics, sustainable development; supply chains; waste minimisation.

Accounting for the sustainable corporation

Presents a framework and methodology of accounting for the sustainable corporation which has the familiar accounting objectives of assessing and reporting corporate performance but that is where the similarities end. Instead of conceiving of the corporation in economic terms, this account is based on the principles of sustainable development and the information needs of both economic and non-economic stakeholders. A new concept of the corporation is achieved by the integration of existing environmental engineering and ecological techniques with economic considerations. In this way, managerial horizons and responsibilities are widened and important communication channels are opened between key disciplines, public and private authorities and a range of communities. The account does not measure in absolute terms the sustainable development that a corporation has attained but provides a comparative mechanism so that corporations may assess their sustainable development in relation to other corporations