Accountability through activism: learning from Bourdieu
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
ISSN: 0951-3574
Article publication date: 24 April 2007
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reflect on how the social‐theoretical work of Pierre Bourdieu (1931‐2001) could contribute to knowledge production on accountability.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on Bourdieu's conceptualisation of social practice in terms of a field/habitus relation, and uses this relation as a framing mechanism to explore the possibilities of accountability in corporate‐stakeholder relations.
Findings
The authors argue that Bourdieu's work holds significant implications for academics operating in the political space relating to accountability because it informs a basis for academic intervention.
Research limitations/implications
Included in the paper are a critique of the dominant “liberal” position on accountability and a defence of the development of a “post‐liberal” alternative.
Practical implications
It is argued that this alternative requires moving away from the dominant procedural approach to practice and recognising the value of informal communication and non‐institutional action as equally valid routes towards accountability.
Originality/value
Reflecting on Bourdieu's position reminds us of the explicit link between political and methodological change, and highlights the necessity for these to be inextricably linked.
Keywords
Citation
Shenkin, M. and Coulson, A.B. (2007), "Accountability through activism: learning from Bourdieu", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 297-317. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570710741037
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited