The accounting–globalisation interrelation: An overview with some reflections on the neglected dimension of emancipatory potentiality

Abstract

Consistent with an understanding of globalisation as a contextual phenomenon that has assumed particular significance in relatively recent times, social and critical theoretical analyses of accounting have come to address accounting in relation to globalisation. A somewhat neglected dimension in critical research has been that of conceiving of the accounting and globalisation interaction as one wherein positive potentiality and opportunity can be found. Our argument, consistent with other critical theoretical appreciations, is that within the context of globalisation there are also potentialities for progressive and emancipatory change, albeit through struggle. A focus on accounting vis-à-vis globalisation helps to bring out accounting's location in relation to potentiality. We overview here, with some attention to prior literature, the interrelation of accounting and globalisation, giving some consideration to the relatively neglected dimension of accounting's location in relation to the potentiality and opportunity of globalisation.