Decolonial studies in accounting? Emerging contributions from Latin America

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to some recent efforts to broaden and foster discussion regarding the accounting field's opening to research perspectives that challenge colonialism from (and within) the margins. The paper presents a conceptual review that differentiates the Postcolonial Critical Theory (PCT) and the Decolonial Epistemology Movement (DEM); also presents some recent studies published in critical international accounting journals in the past few years regarding colonialism, revealing how the field is opening up to discuss colonial issues. The paper embraces emergent contributions from Latin America authors that proposes an alternative to postcolonial thought, aiming to move forward studies in critical accounting in the margins. Finally, the authors trace some considerations by exploring delinking inquiry and non-extractivist methodology to cultivate engagements with relationality, transmodernity, and transculturality, as new contributions to face colonialism and surpass the dichotomy between theory and praxis.