Environmental accounting in China: the case of a medium sized Chinese state owned enterprise

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussions about the radical change that is required if any notion of sustainability is to hold in the future. It is hypothesised that developments in environmental sustainability accounting are likely to take place in China because it has both a tradition of harmony in its predominant philosophical schools and it has a political system based on strong government that is able to shape approaches to sustainability. Design/methodology/approach –The paper contains a synthesis of the literature on environmental accounting and on episteme change. Using a Foucauldian epistemic framework and method, a case of a Chinese state owned enterprise is examined for evidence of developments in environmental accounting and of the attitudes of the accountants implementing changes to the accounting systems to incorporate such developments. Findings – Developments in environmental accounting are found to mirror the developments in environmental management more generally. The influences on these developments are found to be rooted in a life-centred morality based on Chinese philosophy, invention using new technologies, removal of some of the barriers caused by specialisation and an awareness of issues linked to anthropocosmic (rather than anthropocentric) notions of world order. Practical implications – A case such as this opens the door for Chinese organisations to move towards environmental sustainability and its associated accounting in ways that are not mimetic of practices in other parts of the world (i.e. the West). This means that China could lead the world in new approaches to accounting for sustainability that do more than reduce organisations’ short term reputational risk. Originality/value – This paper builds on the theoretical work on episteme change and the possibility of a new primal episteme by applying it to a Chinese organisation so as to test the theory as developed originally by Foucault

Does (or can) Confucianism inform environmental accounting and reporting in China

This paper seeks to do two things: Firstly it reviews some of the literature on both Confucianism and its application to business. Secondly it outlines a proposed research project that will further explore the usefulness of Confucianism in the social and environmental accounting and reporting arena. It is from Neo-Confucian philosophy that this paper mainly draws. In particular the idea of “anthropocosmic” shows that Confucianism has close ties with ecology (and thence with environmental issues). The research project proposed involves interviewing a small group of Chinese accountants and managers using semi-structured interviews to establish how useful Confucian thinking is to them in their environmental accounting and reporting work (now or in the future)

Accountability in the context of civilization change in China

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of accountability in the context of civilization change in China. Using a Foucaultian epistemic framework and archaeological method, data has been gathered from four sources: textual, interviews, case studies and surveys. Each source has been considered in terms of the viability of the modern episteme and the possibility of episteme change to ecological civilization taking place in China. Also the actors in the sustainability accountability network have been identified along with the key contingencies that could lead to changes in accountability in China. Based on the data collected there is strong evidence that the existing industrial civilization in China is seen to be unsustainable. Also that there are particular contingencies in place in China that make episteme change both likely and perhaps already taking place. The key contingency in this research is the metaphysical continuum based on harmony ideas in ancient Chinese philosophy. As a result there are strong grounds for predicting that new forms of accountability will be based around groupings of organizations in provinces, geographical areas (river basins) and regions, feeding up to accountability for sustainability at national and supra-national levels. Practically this research has opened up the possibility of accountability in China that could seriously address sustainability issues rather than the typical Western approaches based on empty rhetoric to improve reputation and legitimacy. This research has operationalized Foucault’s ideas on episteme change empirically in China. As such it represents an original contribution to research on sustainability and accountability responses thereto

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

Classification and Lateralization of Temporal Lobe Epilepsies with and without Hippocampal Atrophy Based on Whole-Brain Automatic MRI Segmentation

Brain images contain information suitable for automatically sorting subjects into categories such as healthy controls and patients. We sought to identify morphometric criteria for distinguishing controls (n = 28) from patients with unilateral temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), 60 with and 20 without hippocampal atrophy (TLE-HA and TLE-N, respectively), and for determining the presumed side of seizure onset. The framework employs multi-atlas segmentation to estimate the volumes of 83 brain structures. A kernel-based separability criterion was then used to identify structures whose volumes discriminate between the groups. Next, we applied support vector machines (SVM) to the selected set for classification on the basis of volumes. We also computed pairwise similarities between all subjects and used spectral analysis to convert these into per-subject features. SVM was again applied to these feature data. After training on a subgroup, all TLE-HA patients were correctly distinguished from controls, achieving an accuracy of 96 ± 2% in both classification schemes. For TLE-N patients, the accuracy was 86 ± 2% based on structural volumes and 91 ± 3% using spectral analysis. Structures discriminating between patients and controls were mainly localized ipsilaterally to the presumed seizure focus. For the TLE-HA group, they were mainly in the temporal lobe; for the TLE-N group they included orbitofrontal regions, as well as the ipsilateral substantia nigra. Correct lateralization of the presumed seizure onset zone was achieved using hippocampi and parahippocampal gyri in all TLE-HA patients using either classification scheme; in the TLE-N patients, lateralization was accurate based on structural volumes in 86 ± 4%, and in 94 ± 4% with the spectral analysis approach. Unilateral TLE has imaging features that can be identified automatically, even when they are invisible to human experts. Such morphometric image features may serve as classification and lateralization criteria. The technique also detects unsuspected distinguishing features like the substantia nigra, warranting further study

Controls on subaerial erosion rates in Antarctica

Erosion rates offer insight on landscape development and the relative importance of chemical and physical processes of weathering. Minimal chemical weathering makes Antarctica an ideal location in which to compare the physical weathering of carbonate rocks to other lithologies. Here we report the first cosmogenic nuclide-derived erosion rates for carbonate rocks in Antarctica. Carbonate samples collected in the southernmost Ellsworth Mountains reflect a 36Cl erosion rate of 0.22 ± 0.02 mm/ka. This erosion rate is consistent with other reported Antarctic erosion rates, but is lower than 36Cl erosion rates derived from other arid regions in the world. These results are integrated with a continent-wide reanalysis of 28 erosion rate studies (>200 measurements), which comprise numerous rock types and other cosmogenic nuclides. By combining cosmogenic nuclide-derived erosion rates across studies, the larger trends provide insight into factors (e.g. lithology, glacial history, and availability of abrasive material) affecting subaerial erosion rates in Antarctica. Statistical analysis of the compiled data set shows differences based on lithology, with sandstone having the largest range of erosion rates. The compiled data also reveals higher erosion rates in areas with a large potential sediment supply, like the Dry Valleys. Samples collected from boulders yield lower erosion rates than those collected from bedrock, likely due to a combination of physical processes that affect boulders and bedrock differently, and glacial history, which can affect the apparent cosmogenic-nuclide derived erosion rate