Accounting for Sustainability: Episteme Change and Ontological Plurality

Frank K. Birkin; Olga Cam

doi:10.21638/11701/spbu05.2016.406

Authors

Frank K. Birkin Royal School of Mines, The School of Management, The University of Sheffield, Conduit Road, Sheffield, S10 1FL, UK
Olga Cam The School of Management, The University of Sheffield, Conduit Road, Sheffield, S10 1FL, UK

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu05.2016.406

Abstract

Recent research reveals accounting for sustainable development to be both problematic and essential. This paper considers that the problems arising may be intrinsic to the concepts and structures of Modern accounting and that their resolution lies ultimately in the development of the consequences of a new possibility of knowledge or episteme. Aft er a brief presentation of the nature and historic impacts of episteme change, this paper explores the epistemic origins of Modern accounting. Evidence for a new, other than Modern, episteme is then presented and its consequences for accounting for sustainable accounting are explored. Signifi cant evidence in this regard is the work of Bruno Latour from Actor-Network Theory to the plurality of ontologies. Refs 93.

Keywords:

sustainability accounting, episteme, ontology, modernity

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Author Biographies

Frank K. Birkin, Royal School of Mines, The School of Management, The University of Sheffield, Conduit Road, Sheffield, S10 1FL, UK

BSc, Professor, Chartered Global Management Accountant

Olga Cam, The School of Management, The University of Sheffield, Conduit Road, Sheffield, S10 1FL, UK

BSc, MSc, Lecturer

References

Литература на русском языке

References in Latin Alphabet

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