Accounting implications in social welfare payments: a Foucauldian analysis

Here is a history of our times written on an unfamiliar theme. It is a study that uses Foucault\u27s archaeology and genealogy, as method in history, to explain three central themes. It seeks to explicate, firstly, the relationship between accounting knowledge and power. Secondly, it seeks to show how human beings create an object in accounting knowledge and how they later become its subject. Finally this study seeks to demonstrate that a human science such as accounting is instrumental in social control. Income, the alpha and omega of accounting, is discoursed and constructed, making up accounting knowledge. The archaeology of income explains income as a social construct. It is then used as a tool for social control to create power, to categorise and to exclude. Income is later regulated and practised through the power of an institution like social welfare. This thesis draws the relationship between social welfare and the object known as income, and how it (income) is the basis upon which \u27the poor\u27 in Australian society are created. This constitutes Foucauldian genealogy. This thesis will argue that accounting will never explain what income is because it is not accounting that holds the key to an explanation or description of income. Rather, it is income that holds the key to the existence of accounting, and it is only through its regulation and practice by initially confining \u27the poor\u27, and later by excluding, marginal ising, categorising and hence controlling them, that we come to understand what income is. This view of history will explain why accounting exists and its relationship to wealth and poverty

Accounting and Materialism in the History of Ideas

Current popular culture is connected to the birth of a secular and materialistic interpretation of reality. Materialism, which is the tendency to be more concerned with material values through rational experimentation and discourse. This paper applies Foucault’s genealogy to explain that materialism is a product of a series of historical events that are closely related to the practice of accounting. Second, accounting and “scientific materialism” have been instrumental in paving the course to their and our common failure. Third, the paper proposes a shift away from our impulse for a mere material existence leading to what has now become ‘popular culture’, to a vision of enhancing ‘an ever advancing civilization’

Determining the relationship between attendance and performance in accounting education

This study provides some empirical evidence of the relationship between face-to-face contact for accounting students by comparing their performance with their attendance at tutorials. Previous research has shown that there was no significant difference in the performance of students, measured by their results, between students who attended tutorials and lectures with those who did not. Internal students who had face-to-face contact outscored those who did not attend lectures and tutorials. This suggests that attendance does explain performance. Consistent with previous studies, we posit that students who attended tutorials have a greater possibility of scoring a higher mean average grade than those who did not attend tutorials. We hypothesise that attendance at tutorials is useful and is conducive to better learning in accounting at the undergraduate levels. With debate about converting all accounting undergraduate courses into the flexible mode over the horizon, this study provides some empirical evidence to accounting students, accounting academics and university administrators as to the suitability of learning and teaching modes in accounting at the undergraduate level.</p

ACCOUNTING PARADIGM OF LIVED EXPERIENCES IN ACTION RESEARCH: THE CASE OF MALAYSIAN PLANTATION WORKERS

This paper introduces action research as a possible new method to reduce the distance between idealism and accounting practice, thus contributing to the accounting literature. The source of this paper is an on-going large research project. The project has three objectives. Firstly, to provide evidence of the utilisation of accounting methods in the Malaya plantation industry from its earliest beginnings through to the introduction of accounting tools such as budgets, leading to the creation of a social and economic underclass in Malaysia. Secondly, to examine the extent to which accounting information provided in the Annual Reports of Malaysian plantation companies is used in determining the wages of plantation workers on the grounds that workers in the plantation industry have been and still are, among the most poorly paid in Malaysia, and perhaps the world. Interestingly, the wages of plantation workers are determined through a negotiation process between the National Union of Plantation Workers and the Malaysian Agricultural Producers Association. This paper draws from this research project and explicates the utilisation of the Action Research methodology in reporting the “lived experiences” of those affected by Management Accounting budgets and demonstrating how the parties to wage negotiation, the employers, union and employees, can better derive value from accounting information provided within the annual reports of Malaysian plantation companies

Commonwealth convergence toward a narrower scope of auditor liability to third parties for negligent misstatements

There have been fundamental shifts in the legal liabilities of auditors in the twentieth century. The article analyses myriad cases. It reveals that case rulings in the later decades moderated previous decisions that had resulted in an expansion of the scope of auditor liability. It shows that there has been a convergence in approach within Commonwealth nations in respect of auditor liability for negligent misstatements. Numerous factors are identified that explain, first the expansion of auditor liability in the early to middle decades of the twentieth century, and also its subsequent reversal in letter decades. The article concludes by arguing that the current positions not likely to remain. The decisions of the courts are shown to be the products of continual struggle to balance the respective rights and interest of auditors, investors (both current and prospective) and the wider community

ACCOUNTING PARADIGM OF LIVED EXPERIENCES IN ACTION RESEARCH: THE CASE OF MALAYSIAN PLANTATION WORKERS

This paper introduces action research as a possible new method to reduce the distance between idealism and accounting practice, thus contributing to the accounting literature. The source of this paper is an on-going large research project. The project has three objectives. Firstly, to provide evidence of the utilisation of accounting methods in the Malaya plantation industry from its earliest beginnings through to the introduction of accounting tools such as budgets, leading to the creation of a social and economic underclass in Malaysia. Secondly, to examine the extent to which accounting information provided in the Annual Reports of Malaysian plantation companies is used in determining the wages of plantation workers on the grounds that workers in the plantation industry have been and still are, among the most poorly paid in Malaysia, and perhaps the world. Interestingly, the wages of plantation workers are determined through a negotiation process between the National Union of Plantation Workers and the Malaysian Agricultural Producers Association. This paper draws from this research project and explicates the utilisation of the Action Research methodology in reporting the “lived experiences” of those affected by Management Accounting budgets and demonstrating how the parties to wage negotiation, the employers, union and employees, can better derive value from accounting information provided within the annual reports of Malaysian plantation companies

Do learner's gender ethnicity really matter for academic performance evaluation

This study aims to determine whether different perceptions based on a learner’s characteristics of age, gender, ethnicity, and duration of stay in Australia provide an explanation of teaching performance evaluations. Perceptions determine interpersonal behaviour (including communication and motivation)and the way a learner believes that they are going to be assessed by the teacher. Thereby, this will impact on a student’s formal evaluation of teaching performance through a student survey of teaching (SST). This study considers the existence of ethnic and gender bias in postgraduate students undertaking accounting-related courses. The study applies a combination of quantitative online and offline surveys which include SST data and additional questions identifying demographic data to demonstrate that a learner’s evaluation of teaching performance is influenced by the learner’s perceptions. Whilst there were no significant findings related to gender, we identified that students from certain ethnic backgrounds and citizenship, had different perceptions of a teacher’s performance. In addition we identified age and duration of stay in Australia as two demographic elements which were also statistically significant.