{"title":"Between a corporatist past and a globalised future: Argentina's accounting profession and the social balance sheet","authors":"Carlos Ramirez, Adrián Zicari","doi":"10.1016/j.cpa.2023.102626","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Sustainability has become a global trend to which Argentina is no stranger. This trend is materialised, among other things, in the surge of the social balance sheet (SBS). In this article, based on the theory of the “system of professions” developed by Abbott (1988), we will try to understand how the Argentinean accounting profession has tried to extend its jurisdiction to the preparation and verification of social balance sheets. We will see how, despite its intellectual, academic and political actions, the Argentinean accounting profession has not succeeded in expanding its jurisdiction to the SBS. Thus, attempts to legislate the preparation and verification of the SBS have not always been successful. Although many Argentinean firms prepare an SBS, very few use the SBS model proposed by this profession or have their SBS verified by accountants.</p><p>The background of our analysis is the evolution of the power structure in Argentina, illustrating the tension between a profession originally organised in a corporatist way, which was inherited from a former economic model, and the new global trends, which are linked to the expansion of financial markets and the rise of sustainability. This structural change creates difficulties for the profession that will ultimately impede its expansionist purpose. We use this case to illustrate certain limitations of the Abbottian approach when it is applied to a context outside the Anglo-Saxon world.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48078,"journal":{"name":"Critical Perspectives on Accounting","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Critical Perspectives on Accounting","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235423000825","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Sustainability has become a global trend to which Argentina is no stranger. This trend is materialised, among other things, in the surge of the social balance sheet (SBS). In this article, based on the theory of the “system of professions” developed by Abbott (1988), we will try to understand how the Argentinean accounting profession has tried to extend its jurisdiction to the preparation and verification of social balance sheets. We will see how, despite its intellectual, academic and political actions, the Argentinean accounting profession has not succeeded in expanding its jurisdiction to the SBS. Thus, attempts to legislate the preparation and verification of the SBS have not always been successful. Although many Argentinean firms prepare an SBS, very few use the SBS model proposed by this profession or have their SBS verified by accountants.
The background of our analysis is the evolution of the power structure in Argentina, illustrating the tension between a profession originally organised in a corporatist way, which was inherited from a former economic model, and the new global trends, which are linked to the expansion of financial markets and the rise of sustainability. This structural change creates difficulties for the profession that will ultimately impede its expansionist purpose. We use this case to illustrate certain limitations of the Abbottian approach when it is applied to a context outside the Anglo-Saxon world.
期刊介绍:
Critical Perspectives on Accounting aims to provide a forum for the growing number of accounting researchers and practitioners who realize that conventional theory and practice is ill-suited to the challenges of the modern environment, and that accounting practices and corporate behavior are inextricably connected with many allocative, distributive, social, and ecological problems of our era. From such concerns, a new literature is emerging that seeks to reformulate corporate, social, and political activity, and the theoretical and practical means by which we apprehend and affect that activity. Research Areas Include: • Studies involving the political economy of accounting, critical accounting, radical accounting, and accounting''s implication in the exercise of power • Financial accounting''s role in the processes of international capital formation, including its impact on stock market stability and international banking activities • Management accounting''s role in organizing the labor process • The relationship between accounting and the state in various social formations • Studies of accounting''s historical role, as a means of "remembering" the subject''s social and conflictual character • The role of accounting in establishing "real" democracy at work and other domains of life • Accounting''s adjudicative function in international exchanges, such as that of the Third World debt • Antagonisms between the social and private character of accounting, such as conflicts of interest in the audit process • The identification of new constituencies for radical and critical accounting information • Accounting''s involvement in gender and class conflicts in the workplace • The interplay between accounting, social conflict, industrialization, bureaucracy, and technocracy • Reappraisals of the role of accounting as a science and technology • Critical reviews of "useful" scientific knowledge about organizations