Naslov
The crises of representation in knowledge-based societies: why is accounting a social service?

Autori
Mraović, Branka

Izvornik
Social responsibility journal (1747-1117) 1 (2005), 1-2; 4-15

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Radovi u časopisima, članak, znanstveni

Ključne riječi
accounting information; knowledge; power

Sažetak
The basic characteristic of knowledge-based societies is that society organised according to simulations, codes and models replaces production as society's organising principle. Ellectronically operated global capitalism is structured with the help of information networks in a timeless space of financial flows. Money has become totally independent of production, escaping into the networks of high-order electronic interactions. The ideas in this article come on the one hand from the Faucaultian poststructuralist and the Baudrillarian postmodernist perspective, and on the other hand they are based on a critical accounting that belongs to Anglo-Saxon critical thinking. In the centre of analysis lies a provocative thesis that was advanced by N. Macintosh in his book Accounting, Accountants and Accountability (2002), that today's financial markets operate detached from reality in hyperreality, and there does not exist anything stable to support the financial economy in the "order of simulacrum". Consequently, vital accounting information no longer refers to real referents, which means that we live in the world of free floating signs. In "the simulation era of today's world", accounting just like all other areas of knowledge, is faced with a crisis of representation. By introducing the poststructuralist perspective in the accounting area, critical accounting has opened up a debate on the presentation of accounting data, use of language and control of accounting discourse. Consequently, accountancy may be seen as a fundamentally social service which is especially evident in the situations when the private and public interests are opposed.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Sociologija

POVEZANOST RADA