Oppressed by consumerism: The emancipatory role of household accounting

Abstract

This paper investigates the role of household accounting in mitigating the oppressive force that is consumerism. Accounting helps to educate a community of families, allowing them to achieve a more restrained, just, and happier life. In this paper, the case study approach was used, and an in-depth analysis of an Italian community of families called the “Reports of Justice” was conducted. These families use accounting spreadsheets to view, analyze, and reallocate their expenditures toward more sustainable products. In this way, these families could observe an emancipatory change in progress and reflect on it. Additionally, by sharing reports and engaging in open discussions on accounting within local groups and other meetings, the whole community learns to achieve a more sober and just lifestyle, as opposed to a consumerist one. The paper shows how a community of families can learn to mitigate consumerism’s negative impacts through a process of problematization and praxis. The results are explained by relying on a Freirean-based theoretical approach. Accounting acts as a dialogic and mobilizing codification that codifies familial changes and helps achieve a transformational praxis. The paper is thus one of the first real-life examples of accounting’s contributions to responsible, sustainable consumption outside the corporate arena in a neglected micro-level context.