Combining war damages accounting and accounting for the natural world with social-organisational repercussions

Abstract

The authors propose a critical reinterpretation of a case study embedded in the historical period of post-WWII in Southern Italy. This period is characterised by relevant socio-political and economic consequences at a global scale, and it has been scarcely investigated from a business perspective. The authors consider the connections between war damages accounting, adverse collateral events, and agricultural accounting as tools to claim for social changes. The analysis specifically concerns the damages caused to the warehouses of hemp growers in the province of Caserta (Campania region, Italy). This area was known as Terra di Lavoro (‘land of work’ (authors’ translation)) since the Middle Ages to outline the poor conditions of hemp growers. The features of the accounting analysed herein, in the light of neo-institutional theory, show how it was used as a technology for problem-solving and a potential trigger for the agrarian reform of 1950.