Irony of the golden age of accounting methodolgy

Developments in accounting methodology during the 1960s are contrasted with concurrent developments in philosophy of science. The 1960s was a decade characterized by the widespread adoption of the scientific method in accounting methodology. The same decade was characterized by the degeneration of any semblance of consensus among philosophers of science regarding the nature of scientific inquiry. The irony of these incongruous but simultaneous developments is highlighted with the intent of weakening the current atmosphere of uncritical reverence for science and the scientific method in accounting research. A more contemporary (and more open) view of science : the postempiri-cist view : also is discussed

Ancient Mesopotamian accounting and human cognitive evolution

Recent archaeological evidence supports the claim that the first system of writing and the first use of abstract numerical representation evolved from the clay token accounting system of ancient Mesopotamia. Writing and other abstract symbol systems have subsequently transformed human cognitive capacities within only few millennia, a time period too short for any substantial changes in our biologically-evolved brains. This paper uses Merlin Donald\u27s theory of human cognitive and cultural evolution [in Origins of the Modern Mind; 1991] to identify the role played by ancient accounting in these evolutionary processes. Specifically, it is argued that this early accounting system paved the way for writing by instigating revolutionary cognitive structures for processing visual/symbolic artifacts and establishing a primitive but very powerful form of external memory (external to the brain). The paper also explores the role that accounting systems continue to play in the provision of cognitive scaffolding with respect to our organizational and institutional environments, and provides a cursory overview of the pioneering developments of ancient Mesopotamian accounting in this regard

Revolution in financial reporting theory : A Kuhnian interpretation

A Kuhnian perspective is used to explain the transition in financial reporting theory from an economic income perspective to an informational perspective (a transition that Beaver refers to as a revolution), and to examine the subsequent development of the latter. The demise of the economic income perspective (represented by the normative a priorists) is attributed to the lack of a paradigm which could serve to identify research problems and provide methodological guidance. The success of the informational paradigm, on the other hand, is attributed to the fact that it was, in essence, a sub-paradigm of the broader and well-established market economics paradigm. The study concludes, however, with a discussion of two types of persistent anomalous findings (the first with respect to the EMH and the second with respect to the CAPM) that have the potential to generate a crisis for the informational paradigm

Group Art Therapy with Survivors: A Group Intervention Design for Women who were Sexually Abused

The intention of this research was to explore how therapeutic interventions found in the literature can be adapted and used in a closed, long-term art therapy group program for adult women who have experienced childhood sexual abuse. The existing literature is examined with a focus on perspectives of trauma-informed therapy, art therapy with sexual abuse survivors, and group therapy with survivors. Therapeutic issues and techniques in these paradigms will be explored, culminating into a proposed structure for a twenty-four session art therapy group. Guidelines will be proposed for session objectives and content based on suggestions made in the literature review. The suggested art therapy interventions will be conceptualized and described through a framework for the beginning, middle or end phases of the group process. The paper will then conclude with a discussion of my own recommendations regarding the proposed model based on my own clinical experience in leading an art therapy group specifically for women survivors of childhood sexual abuse

The use of made-up users

While the existence of fictitious users of financial statements has been confirmed in previous research, our study investigates how this powerful yet ‘made-up’ construct is deployed within the discourses of the main stakeholders as they shape regulatory debates in the international accounting standard-setting arena, including ‘real’ users themselves. Our study draws on Bourdieu’s theorization of dominant discourse as a form of power, and extends it with the phraseological theory of meaning, specifically the linguistic concept of collocation, which focuses on the habitual choices of words in discourse. Using this framework, we conduct a comparative analysis of the recurrent language choices around the term ‘user’ in comment letters submitted on the selected IASB’s regulatory proposals. We provide empirical evidence for the existence of commonalties and subtle differences in the ways in which made-up users are discursively operationalized by the four key accounting constituent groups, the accounting profession, prepares, regulators and ‘real’ users of financial statements. At the theoretical and methodological level, our study showcases the explanatory power of the concept of collocation to identify and interrogate implicit patterns of dominant discourse as set forth by Bourdieu. We also show that the close investigation of how the dominant discourse of the made-up users works generates a series of new why questions regarding the ‘real’ users’ role in accounting standard setting

Behind the World Bank’s ringing declarations of “social accountability”: Ghana’s public financial management reform

Accountability has become integral to many African development reforms and permeated the World Bank’s (WB) policy discourses, with “social accountability” as a major plank in its development orthodoxy. Since the 2004 Word Development Report, the Bank’s leadership has been declaring its commitment to social accountability. This paper excavates what lies behind ringing declarations of commitment to social accountability in the context of Ghana’s Public Financial Management Reform Programme. Empirically, it draws on four months’ fieldwork into the accountability practices this programme brought about and an extensive analysis of WB discourses on public sector reforms and social accountability. Theoretically, the paper draws on Foucault’s governmentality and the notion of agonistic democracy central to the recent democratic accountability debate in critical accounting circles. The paper argues that WB’s social accountability crusade hinges on the neoliberal concerns of efficiency and fiscal discipline rather than creating a democratic social order, which then questions the very notion of social accountability that WB is propagating, especially its discursive and ideological “short-circuiting” of democratic processes. The paper finds that the dominant and dominating accountability forms that facilitate WB’s financial hegemony are privileged over potentially emancipatory ones. The findings highlight that as the local governments become responsible to international development agencies through the “social accountabilities” that WB is promoting they become less socially and democratically accountable to their own populace – the very place where social accountability should truly rest