Citation
Graham, C., Guthrie, J. and Parker, L.D. (2011), "Norman Macintosh", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 24 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ.05924faa.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Norman Macintosh
Article Type: Obituary From: Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Volume 24, Issue 6
Professor Norman Macintosh passed away quietly at home on May 17, 2011. Norman was a long-time friend and contributor to AAAJ. A man of profound intellectual curiosity, Norman transformed accounting research by introducing us to new theoretical perspectives on accounting. In the 1980s, he was among the first to study accounting using contingency theory, human relations theory, social psychology, and macro organizational theory. In the 1990s, he adopted structuration theory to examine management accounting and control systems. Later in the decade he began to draw on critical theory to help make sense of earnings management.
He also experimented with ethnographic research and began his explorations of post-structuralism. In the 2000s, he turned frequently to linguistic approaches to accounting research. Over his research lifetime, Norman introduced many accounting scholars to Foucault, Baudrillard, Bakhtin, Derrida, Levinas, Nietzsche, Rorty, and Bourdieu. His appetite for new theorists continued unabated to the end; he was still grappling with an article on Bataille when he died after a long illness. Yet his concern was always practical, committed to understanding contemporary accounting practice. Norm wrote five books and more than 30 refereed articles in three decades of research. He was a generous co-author, and ceaselessly stimulating colleague, and a ready mentor to many an awestruck doctoral student at conferences around the world. He will be sorely missed.
Cameron Graham
Schulich School of Business, Toronto, Canada
James Guthrie
Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance, Macquarie University, NSW, Australia
Lee D. Parker
School of Commerce, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia