Unveiling Social and Environmental Accounting Research in Spain: A Narrative of the Mobilisation of the Spanish Academic Community

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present a personal overview of the process of mobilisation of the social and environmental accounting research (SEAR) Spanish academic community to develop social and environmental accounting research as a legitimate research field. Using the arguments of Hambrick and Chen (2008) for analysing new academic fields as admittance-seeking social movements, a narrative is provided outlining the characteristics of the process of mobilisation of this emerging Spanish research community aspiring to become a field. A retrospective and introspective analysis is carried out to identify some critical events that figure in a still developing narrative and that are considered part of the process of social construction of SEAR in Spain. The narrative unveils SEAR in Spain, outlining shared interests and knowledge and social infrastructure, in conjunction with the agency of certain individuals, as its vital and enlivening principles.