After ANT ‐ An illustrative discussion of the implications for qualitative accounting case research

Abstract

The main aim of this article is to shed some light on the way in which actor network theory (ANT) might contribute to case research in accounting. The paper will seek to explain some of the theoretical suppositions which are commonly associated with ANT and which have so far made little impact on the accounting literature. At the same time the accounting literature has shown a particular reluctance to engage with the central concept of ANT which Lee and Hassard characterise as the desire to bring together the “human and non‐human, social and technical factors in the same analytical view”. The article also features a discussion of a research project which used an approach giving emphasis to both humans and objects in order to understand how “facts” have come to be settled as they are. In taking such views into the research it is hoped to provide insight into both the detail of accounting as it is practised within organisations and the manner in which human actors and objects of technology may combine to constitute networks within organisations.