Introductory description

In this module we explore the core aspects of accountability and accounting practice, and the characteristics of professional expertise, that operate as central mechanisms in making the grand challenges of sustainable development practicable.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1: Grand challenges and changing accountabilities
How is accountability changing against the background of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals?
Week 2: Understanding Accountability
What are the possibilities of accountability and how are they realised in practice?
Week 3: Understanding Materiality
How do we decide what to account for and how to account for it?
Week 4: Professional Expertise 1: Reporting Frameworks
How are reporting frameworks constructed and legitimised?
Week 5: Professional Expertise 2: Audit and Assurance
How do professional services respond to the demand for assurance?
Week 6: Climate Change and Carbon Accounting
How have climate change concerns been translated into accountabilities and accountings?
Week 7: Biodiversity and Ecosystems
How can we account for biodiversity and impact on ecosystems?
Week 8: Economic Inequality and Social Impact
How can we account for economic inequality and social impact?
Week 9: Counter-Accounting
How do alternative accounts and counter-accounts help in developing accountabilities?
Week 10: Scenario Planning and the Future of Professional Expertise
How does professional expertise need to develop in responding to the grand challenges?

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate how grand challenges impact the accountability of organisations and decision-makers as well as accounting practices in organisations and between organisations and their stakeholder.
• Understand current responses to the grand challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, and economic inequality.
• Appreciate the role of counter accounts in developing accountability.
• Recognise the role of scenario planning in risk management and the continuous development of professional expertise.
• Explain and discuss the ongoing development and change of accounting frameworks.

Indicative reading list

Dillard, J. and Vinnari, E. (2019) “Critical dialogical accountability: From accounting-based accountability to accountability-based accounting”, Critical Perspectives on Accounting 62: 16–38
Hines, R.D (1988) “Financial Accounting: In Communicating Reality, We Construct Reality”, Accounting, Organizations and Society 13 (3): 251-261
Laine, M., Tregidga, H. and Unerman, J. (2022) Sustainability accounting and accountability. Third Edition. New York: Routledge.
Lohmann, L. (2009) “Toward a different debate in environmental accounting: The cases of carbon and cost–benefit”, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 34(3-4), pp. 499–534
Murphy, T., O’Connell, V. and Ó hÓgartaigh, C. (2013) “Discourses surrounding the evolution of the IASB/FASB Conceptual Framework: What they reveal about the ‘living law’ of accounting”, Accounting, Organizations and Society 38: 72–91
Roberts, J. (1991) “The Possibilities of Accountability”, Accounting, Organizations and Society 16 (4): 355-368
Tregidga, H. (2013) “Biodiversity offsetting: problematisation of an emerging governance regime”, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 26 (5): 806–832
Vinnari, E. and Laine, M. (2017) “The moral mechanism of counter accounts: The case of industrial animal production”, Accounting, Organizations and Society 57: 1–17

Interdisciplinary

This module draws on insights from interdisciplinary accounting research which in turn draws from mainly from management and organisation studies, sociology, political science, and philosophy.

Subject specific skills

Investigate the role of the accounting professions in shaping accountability.
Use the concept of materiality in determining the adequacy of accounting practice.

Transferable skills

Develop problem framing and problem solving skills in interrogating the construction of professional expertise.