Chinese environmental accountability: Ancient beliefs, science and sustainability

Frank Birkin,Lien Monkhouse,John Margerison

doi:10.1016/j.resenv.2021.100017

Frank Birkin, Lien Monkhouse + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resenv.2021.100017

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Abstract

This paper reports on a study into the potential for ancient Chinese belief systems to provide a foundation for environmental accountability in China. The global environmental impact of China is such that there is an urgent need for improved environmental accountability in China. The paper uses a theoretical model based on the work of Michel Foucault on episteme change as well as Systems Theory. Interviews and surveys are analysed using qualitative thematic analysis and descriptive statistics. There is evidence that the Chinese accountants were influenced by the ancient philosophies of Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism. In turn, this influence results in a deep reverence for Nature and a strong desire for harmony between humans and Nature. The conclusion is that the Chinese accountants do have a strong environmental ethic derived from their beliefs and that this supports their roles in providing environmental accountability and hence sustainability. Conducting research in China was difficult and the number and quality of the interviews are limited because of this. Furthermore there were problems associated with interpretation and translation across languages and cultures. Nonetheless, this research has the potential to help empower Chinese accountants to improve their environmental accountability. Much research has already focused on Chinese business and traditional Chinese philosophy but this study contributes to the knowledge and understanding of the relations between Chinese accountants, environmental accountability and ancient belief systems. As such, the study makes an important contribution to Chinese, and hence global, sustainability.

Highlights

Introduction and research questionResearch on the accountant’s role into environmental accountability for both accounting and reporting has a history going back to such as Hines (1988) who famously argued that ‘‘in communicating [accounting] reality, we construct reality’’
The other reality of this paper is that of Chinese accountants who are proposed to possess ancient beliefs that would be supportive of an improved environmental ethic and a revised form of environmental accountability
The first research question in this study is: Do Chinese accountants have an environmental ethic that is leading to changes in accountability for sustainability? To answer this question, this study revealed a key feature of an emerging Foucauldian episteme change as indications of a correspondence between systems science and ancient Chinese philosophies, a correspondence which would not be possible in the dominant Modern episteme

Summary

Introduction

Research on the accountant’s role into environmental accountability for both accounting and reporting has a history going back to such as Hines (1988) who famously argued that ‘‘in communicating [accounting] reality, we construct reality’’. This social constructionist perspective (Birkin, 1996) reveals that accounting is not objective but is interactive with the social context. It is revealed in this study that positive environmental ethics and attitudes derived from ancient beliefs are possessed by Chinese accountants

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