Colin Dey, University of DundeeColin Dey, University of Dundee

Shona Russell, Landcare ResearchShona Russell, Landcare Research

Ian Thomson, University of StrathclydeIan Thomson, University of Strathclyde

CSR Workshop, September 2008CSR Workshop, September 2008

Social accounting and the external Social accounting and the external problematisation of institutional conduct: problematisation of institutional conduct:

Exploring the potential of shadow accountsExploring the potential of shadow accounts

Background Background ‘Social accounting project’ - pragmatic efforts to engage

with corporate accountability and initiate meaningful change

Initial emphasis on formal, procedural aspects of accounting

Outcome - mounting evidence of appropriation rather than change – organisation capture of language of responsibility and sustainability

Ongoing efforts to develop new more reflexive approaches to empirical study and engagement with corporate accountability practices

Accountability discourses drawn from sociology, organisation theory, cultural and media studies, etc

External problematising accounts:Independently produced Extend beyond shadowing corporationsRepresent the interests of oppressed social groupsWiden the number and kind of stories that get told – and the actors who tell themOppositional form of accountingResistance - a way of talking back and addressing

silenceSurfacing of tensions and contradictions

Emancipatory? Or ‘an anchor on a bike’? Are stories and evidence enough?

Shadow accounting:Shadow accounting:Accounting for the other by the otherAccounting for the other by the other

Shadow accounts take many forms…Shadow accounts take many forms…

social audits deindustrialisation audits silent accounts shadow accounts portrayal gap analysis social accounts counter accounts

Why are shadow techniques important?Why are shadow techniques important? public opinion increasingly alert to debates

about risk & impact of institutional activity

public trust in NGO groups consistently higher than trust in corporations and other institutions

shadow techniques create ‘counter-expert’ (anti-business) sources of information intended to undermine dominant institutional messages

public opinion may therefore be mobilised in ways that damage shareholder value

Analysing past experiments with Analysing past experiments with shadow accounts: some common attributesshadow accounts: some common attributes

individuals or collectives collect data develop theories that draw attention to defects in official accounts of events construct alternative accounts problematise official accounting assumptions question origins, presentation and interpretation of costs, statistics and other evidence uncover creative or manipulative accounting techniques embedded within political discourses designed to change policies or specific decisions to analyse this in more depth we have used Dean’s Analytics of Governance framework

Analytics of Government frameworkAnalytics of Government framework

develops notions of governing as ‘bodies of knowledge, belief and opinion in which we are immersed’ components of government include:

objectivestechniques forms of knowledgevisibilitiesidentity construction

Problematisation

Utopia

knowledge

identity

rationality

visibilities

technologies

Analytics of Government and Shadow AccountingAnalytics of Government and Shadow Accounting

Utopia

knowledge

identity rationality

visibilities

technologies

Utopia

knowledge

identity rationality

visibilities

technologies

Ability to change & Emanicipatory??

Shadow AccountsShadow Accounts

Exposing & reflecting invisible & silenced

factors

Presenting solutions

Lacked awareness of governing regimes

Did not always address obstacles to change

Re-examining situations in light of new understandings

Problematising status quo Representing &

renarrating

Exposing contradictions

Undemocratic? Potentially

oppressive?

Change not directly related to ‘better’

evidence

Critique and challenge undesirable institutional

conduct

Draws its power from power of conventional accounting

Challenge knowledge & rationalities

Operated in isolation from other ‘shadow’

technologies