Accounting Control and Controlling Accounting: Interdisciplinary and Critical Perspectives

This book advocates and illustrates the power of Interdisciplinary and Critical Perspectives, drawn from a range of social sciences, to critically analyse accounting processes and practices. Its particular focus is the extensive forms of societal regulations and requirements that are made over organisations, particularly public sector organisations, that are driven by forms of accounting, collectively described as Accounting Control in the book. These regulations and requirements are deeply resented by these public sector organisations and, as a result, all manner of resistance strategies are adopted, which are described as Controlling Accounting in the book.

The book is primarily conceptual but, given the particular Interdisciplinary and Critical research approach adopted, relies heavily on drawing from empirical cases to develop the conceptual ideas. The book, therefore, analyses actual public sector Accounting Control and Controlling Accounting strategies and counter-strategies primarily, but not exclusively, from the United Kingdom, to develop the conceptual ideas. The book ends with a critical analysis of the forces and counter-forces of Accounting Control and Controlling Accounting. It suggests a range of policy and practical alternatives to this current situation, which is seen as considerable wasted effort from both a societal and organizational perspective.

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Highlights

• this book draws on a range of empirical cases to illustrate the power of interdisciplinarary and critical perspectives on accounting (ICPA)
• focuses on the societal regulations and requirements made over organisations, particularly in the public sector, and the resistance strategies adopted to these controls
• suggests policy and practical alternatives to the current situation
• can serve as a text for specialist MA and MSc programmes
• the authors Jane Broadbent and Richard Laughlin are leading scholars in the field and have published extensively in prestigious journals (see below).

Readership

Academics, Master students, PhD candidates and researchers, in particular those with a special interest in ICPA, public services accounting, financial reporting and management accounting and control.

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