Opening Accounting to Critical Scrutiny: Towards Dialogic Accounting for Policy Analysis and Democracy

Abstract

Engaging policy studies audiences in the critical scrutiny of accounting potentially enhances the possibilities for democratizing accounting. To facilitate realizing this potential, this article highlights traditional accounting’s narrow focus on financial markets and shareholder wealth maximization, its failure to adequately account for the social and environmental impacts of organizational activity, and the role it has played in the spread of neoliberal logics. It outlines proposals for dialogic accounting theory and practice aimed at developing civil society-oriented accounts that foster critical reflection and debate on organizational practices. The discussion also highlights the significant challenges involved in developing dialogic accounting – in terms of both the taken-for-grantedness of business-oriented framings, and wider political economy context. The article underlines the importance of cross-disciplinary initiatives and civil society engagement in efforts to challenge the monologism of traditional accounting and develop democratically responsive accounting.