The “real” cultural significance of accounts

Abstract

Typically, accounting is portrayed as a passive information service, dedicated to faithfully reporting on economic reality. This paper, in contrast, investigates the re-presentional aspects of accounting, and the part it plays as a symbolic, cultural and hegemonic force, in struggles over the distribution of social income. The issues are examined empirically through the publishing patterns of the Journal of Accountancy, Accounting Review, and Fortune magazine between 1960 and 1973. Chronicling the changes in accounting literature is not our primary concern however. Rather, this work explores the relationships between accounting discourses and the conditions of social conflict in which these discourses are embedded. The evidence suggests that: different accounting journals specialize in different rhetorical functions; that these functions are discharged in harmony with other media and cultural forces (data on Fortune's discursive practices is provided for comparison); and that, over time, the discursive roles of accounting journals change with the evolving hegemonic climate. This paper contends that viewing accounting literature as disinterested inquiry or rigorous scholarship understates the social origins of research. Instead, we suggest that discursive accounting practices are more productively regarded as ideological weapons for participating in conflicts over the distribution of social wealth.