Transforming identities: accounting professionals and the transition to motherhood

This paper investigates the experience of motherhood and employment within the UK accounting profession by examining the oral history narratives of a small group of accountants who have recently become mothers and returned to work, thereby undertaking a process of redefinition and transformation of the self. Drawing from contemporary theories on identity, it considers how individuals make sense of the different social identities, which they take on over their life course, and to what extent social, institutional and cultural factors shape and restrict the ways in which the self is experienced. The paper extends the use of oral history methods in accounting research, arguing for the use of narrative to conceptualise identity formation, and also explores the implications for both the self and the accounting profession of interconnections and juxtapositions between the ostensibly private sphere of the home and the public sphere of employment

Other lives in accounting: critical reflections on oral history methodology in action

The aim of this paper is to provide a critical and reflexive evaluation of the use of an oral history methodology in a research project investigating the lived experiences of women accountants. It discusses the nature and benefits of oral history as a research methodology, which allows the subjectivities of individuals to be central to the empirical data. It allows the voices of those who have arguably been ignored, marginalised or silenced within particular contexts to be heard. The paper draws on feminist approaches to research methodology, which stress reciprocity and the minimisation of hierarchies within research. It evaluates some of the ethical issues arising, such as the ownership of research, the use of friends and strangers as research participants, and emotion, within the research relationship. The paper concludes that, when approached critically and reflexively, oral history provides a sound epistemological and methodological base for understanding the meaning of events and experience to individuals.

(Re)figuring accounting and maternal bodies: the gendered embodiment of accounting professional

This paper examines the relationship between the body and the self for women accounting professionals. It explores how they come to embody the identity of accountant and what happens when forms of organisational and professional embodiment coincide with other forms of gendered embodied self, such as that experienced during pregnancy and in early motherhood. These forms of embodiment can be seen simultaneously both as a mechanism of social control, and as a form of self-expression and empowerment for women.socialisation; embodiment; accounting profession; body; feminism; pregnancy

Moving the gender agenda or stirring chicken’s entrails?: where next for feminist methodologies in accounting?

Purpose – The paper critiques recent research on gender and accounting to explore how feminist methodology can move on and radicalise the gender agenda in the accounting context. Design/methodology/approach – After examining current research on gender and accounting, the paper explores the nature of feminist methodology and its relation to epistemology. It explores three inter-related tenets of feminist methodology in detail: Power and Politics, Subjectivity and Reflexivity. Findings – The paper suggests that much research in the accounting is concerned with gender-as-a-variable, rather than being distinctly feminist, thus missing the opportunity to radicalise the agenda. It makes suggestions for how a feminist approach to methodology could be applied to the accounting context. Originality/value – The paper calls for a wider application of a feminist approach to accounting research and where this might be applied. Keywords – feminism, methodology, epistemology, gender, accounting, power, reflexivity, subjectivity Paper type – conceptual paper

The circular economy: An interdisciplinary exploration of the concept and application in a global context

There have long been calls from industry for guidance in implementing strategies for sustainable development. The Circular Economy represents the most recent attempt to conceptualize the integration of economic activity and environmental wellbeing in a sustainable way. This set of ideas has been adopted by China as the basis of their economic development (included in both the 11th and the 12th ‘Five Year Plan’), escalating the concept in minds of western policymakers and NGOs. This paper traces the conceptualisations and origins of the Circular Economy, tracing its meanings, and exploring its antecedents in economics and ecology, and discusses how the Circular Economy has been operationalized in business and policy. The paper finds that while the Circular Economy places emphasis on the redesign of processes and cycling of materials, which may contribute to more sustainable business models, it also encapsulates tensions and limitations. These include an absence of the social dimension inherent in sustainable development that limits its ethical dimensions, and some unintended consequences. This leads us to propose a revised definition of the Circular Economy as “an economic model wherein planning, resourcing, procurement, production and reprocessing are designed and managed, as both process and output, to maximize ecosystem functioning and human well-being”

Reflexivity in accountancy research

Abstract: The concept of reflexivity has been widely used in social science qualitative research methods for a number of decades, so it is not a new phenomenon. Broadly it refers to the process in which the researcher reflects on data collection and its interpretation. This can occur at a number of levels and from a number of perspectives, as discussed in this chapter, in an active process. Reflexivity relates to all research, whether qualitative or quantitative, since all researchers should adopt a reflexive approach to their data. However, despite qualitative methods becoming more prominent and more accepted within accounting research, they still operate in a context ‘dominated by hypothetico-deductive quantitative methodologies that essentially are reified as “hard”, factual and objective, consonant with the accounting world of numbers’ (Parker, 2012, p. 59), where reflexivity is less often applied. This suggests that the significance of reflexivity as a concept is all the more relevant to contemporary qualitative accounting research since it is central to consideration of the nature of knowledge. Questions about reflexivity are part of debates about ontology, epistemology and methodology. Ontology represents the researcher’s way of being in the world or their world-view on the nature of reality; epistemology represents the philosophical underpinnings about the nature or theory of knowledge and what counts as knowledge in various research traditions; and methodology represents the overarching research strategy and processes of knowledge production, concerned with methods of data collection and forms of analysis used to generate knowledge. The purpose of this chapter is to reflect on those debates, the meaning and application of reflexivity, strategies for reflexive awareness and processes of reflexivity, reflexive research in accounting, and future possibilities for reflexive accounting research

Accounting as gendering and gendered : a review of 25 years of critical accounting research on gender

This paper gives a critical review of 25 years of critical accounting research on gender, addressing what we have learned to date and what are the most challenging areas to be investigated in the future. It considers accounting as a political construct implicated in perpetuating inequality, with reference to global gender challenges. Gendered histories of accounting and stories of individual struggles show barriers to entry being overcome; but challenges remain. Accounting acts as both a gendered and gendering institution in relation to career hierarchies, motherhood, work-life debates, and feminisation and segmentation, and interacts with gendered identity, embodiment and sexuality. The paper outlines the contribution of feminist theory to accounting research on gender and calls for further research on the interaction of gender relations with global capitalism

Behavioral differences in depressed and conduct-disordered youth

This study investigated the behavioral parameters of depression in children and adolescents. Demographic information, DSM-III psychiatric diagnosis, scores on the Children\u27s Depression Inventory (CDI), and admitting problem (POR) behaviors were obtained from an archival data pool collected at four different child psychiatric hospitals on 630 inpatient subjects 5 to 20 years of age.;Subjects were assigned to one of four research groups defined by psychiatric diagnosis (DSM-III) and/or by scores on the CDI, i.e., CDI only groups (high vs. low scorers), DSM-III only groups (depressed vs. conduct-disordered), DSM-III + CDI groups (depressed high scorers vs. conduct-disordered low scorers), and DSM-III only (depressed children vs. depressed adolescents). Forty POR behaviors previously identified as being symptoms or associated features of childhood depression were used in a discriminant function analysis for each research question.;There was no difference between groups on POR behaviors when separated only by CDI scores. Results supported some behavioral difference between psychiatrically diagnosed depressed and conduct-disordered youth. Sadness appeared to be the most powerful discriminating variable for predicting depression as separate from conduct disorder when depression was defined by DSM-III criteria alone and in conjunction with CDI cutoff scores of 11 or higher. Aggression was significant in predicting conduct disorder for the DSM-III only groups. Poor self-concept and school underachievement were also indicated as behavior variables having discriminating power when depression was defined by DSM-III only. Age differences in POR behaviors for DSM-III depressed children and adolescents were not significant.;Results were discussed in terms of trends in the data that may be useful for further investigative efforts. The presence of a number of behaviors in DSM-III and DSM-III plus CDI depressed groups supported findings of previous psychometric studies; support was also found for several overlapping behaviors between depressed and conduct-disordered groups as reported in the literature. It was concluded that further behavioral study is needed with depressed children and adolescents to confirm findings from previous psychiatrically and psychometrically based studies. Findings would ultimately be useful in formulating developmental refinements in the assessment criteria for childhood depression and aiding in the differential diagnosis of depression and conduct disorder

‘Passionate and professional’: reconciling logics in public service accounting

In order to deliver public value, the UK government sought to build relationships and connect ‘the public’ with public servants (including back-office workers), but with what effect? Drawing on interviews with public service accountants, the authors found that how these accountants conceptualized ‘the public’—as society or people—shaped whether public value was considered as a monetary or moral concept. Accountants who regarded the public as people spoke of an improper level of involvement and struggled to maintain their professionalism

The Circular Economy: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of the Concept and Application in a Global Context

There have long been calls from industry for guidance in implementing strategies for sustainable development. The Circular Economy represents the most recent attempt to conceptualize the integration of economic activity and environmental wellbeing in a sustainable way. This set of ideas has been adopted by China as the basis of their economic development (included in both the 11th and the 12th ‘Five Year Plan’), escalating the concept in minds of western policymakers and NGOs. This paper traces the conceptualisations and origins of the Circular Economy, tracing its meanings, and exploring its antecedents in economics and ecology, and discusses how the Circular Economy has been operationalized in business and policy. The paper finds that while the Circular Economy places emphasis on the redesign of processes and cycling of materials, which may contribute to more sustainable business models, it also encapsulates tensions and limitations. These include an absence of the social dimension inherent in sustainable development that limits its ethical dimensions, and some unintended consequences. This leads us to propose a revised definition of the Circular Economy as “an economic model wherein planning, resourcing, procurement, production and reprocessing are designed and managed, as both process and output, to maximize ecosystem functioning and human well-being”