Table of Remembrance

(Excerpt) The theme announced for this Institute is Grace upon Grace: Uving Bread. In this keynote address I have been asked to set an ecumenical tone for your conversations about the Eucharist, speaking to how it means for the faithful and drawing upon my own theology-which reviewers, both Lutheran and Evangelical, have dubbed a distinctively Roman Catholic theology but one that is ecumenically open and challenging. I think this means that it opens the way to better mutual understanding and enrichment. Drawing on this theology, I have chosen five headings under which to offer my considerations: the Eucharist as testament of service, the Eucharist as an invitation to table, the Eucharist as a table where memories are stored, the Eucharist as a table where Jesus Christ is guest, host and gift, and the Eucharist as a table of blessing

An analysis of the role of the textbook in the construction of accounting knowledge

This report examines the role of the textbook and training manual in the teaching of introductory financial accounting. Although it has long been recognised that the textbook plays an important role in the education process, the issue has not been systematically examined in a comprehensive manner with respect to the teaching of introductory financial accounting. Based on research carried out in 2005, the current report addresses this issue. It does so using a research framework proposed by Thompson (1990) which recommends a comprehensive approach to the understanding of texts involving three separate aspects: the production of the textbook/training manual; the content of the textbook/training manual; the usage of the textbook/training manual

The End of Enterprise Risk Management

Enterprise risk management (ERM) has grown in significance since the mid-1990s to become a key resource in the conceptualization and design of risk management systems. We argue that this emphasis is misplaced and contributes to the problem of a divide between analysis and action. ERM may be relevant for regulators and others in need of proof of good governance, but its formulations have become progressively detached from the reality of modern financial organizations. We argue that buy-side risk management practices provide an alternative conception of risk management which is more grounded in operations and which avoids the problems of actionability created by controls-based ERM.

Constructing meaning in the service of power : an analysis of the typical modes of ideology in accounting textbooks

This paper provides an analysis of the typical modes of ideology in introductory financial accounting textbooks and training materials. Drawing on Thompson's (1990) schema concerning the typical linguistic modes through which ideology operates, this research suggests that the operation of ideology is apparent within educational accounting texts, with particular strategies being more evident than others: in particular, the strategies of universalization, narrativization, rationalization and naturalization. Given the predominantly technical nature of introductory financial accounting textbooks and training manuals, the modes of ideology identified in the texts were often quite subtle; more specifically, the ideological characteristics displayed in each of the six texts analysed were often expressions of implicit or taken-for-granted assumptions

Dialogue Games for Crosslingual Communication

We describe a novel approach to crosslingual dialogue that supports highly accurate communication of semantically complex content between people who do not speak the same language. The approach is introduced through an implemented application that covers the same ground as the chapter of a conventional phrase book for food shopping. We position the approach with respect to dialogue systems and Machine Translation-based approaches to crosslingual dialogue. The current work is offered as a first step towards the innovative use of dialogue theories for the enhancement of human–human dialogue

Understanding Power-related Strategies and Initiatives:The Case of the European Commission Green Paper on CSR

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretically informed analysis of a struggle for power over the regulation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social and environmental accounting and reporting (SEAR) within the European Union. Design/methodology/approach The paper combines insights from institutional theory (Lawrence and Buchanan, 2017) with Vaara et al.’s (2006) and Vaara and Tienar’s (2008) discursive strategies approach in order to interrogate the dynamics of the institutional “arena” that emerged in 2001, following the European Commission’s publication of a Green Paper (GP) on CSR policy and reporting. Drawing on multiple sources of data (including newspaper coverage, semi-structured interviews and written submissions by companies and NGOs), the authors analyse the institutional political strategies employed by companies and NGOs – two of the key stakeholder groupings who sought to influence the dynamics and outcome of the European initiative. Findings The results show that the 2001 GP was a “triggering event” (Hoffman, 1999) that led to the formation of the institutional arena that centred on whether CSR policy and reporting should be voluntary or mandatory. The findings highlight how two separate, but related forms of power (systemic and episodic power) were exercised much more effectively by companies compared to NGOs. The analysis of the power initiatives and discursive strategies deployed in the arena provides a theoretically informed understanding of the ways in which companies acted in concert to reach their objective of maintaining CSR and SEAR as a voluntary activity. Originality/value The theoretical framework outlined in the paper highlights how the analysis of CSR and SEAR regulation can be enriched by examining the deployment of episodic and systemic power by relevant actors.PostprintPeer reviewe

High resolution 3D laser scanner measurements of a strike-slip fault quantify its morphological anisotropy at all scales

The surface roughness of a recently exhumed strikeslip fault plane has been measured by three independent 3D portable laser scanners. Digital elevation models of several fault surface areas, from 1 m2 to 600 m2, have been measured at a resolution ranging from 5 mm to 80 mm. Out of plane height fluctuations are described by non-Gaussian distribution with exponential long range tails. Statistical scaling analyses show that the striated fault surface exhibits self-affine scaling invariance with a small but significant directional morphological anisotropy that can be described by two scaling roughness exponents, H1 = 0.7 in the direction of slip and H2 = 0.8 perpendicular to the direction of slip