A journey of socialising the risks associated with global warming: a Gandhian insight into Schumacher's total accounting and accountability

Abstract

Scientists are constructing knowledge about global warming by adapting evidence-based disciplines to reflect the Precautionary Principle. It is equally important to communicate the complexities and uncertainties underpinning global warming because inappropriate vehicles for giving accounts could result in defensive decisions that perpetuate the business-as-usual mindset: the method of communication affects how the risk associated with global warming is socialised. Appropriately constructed accounts should facilitate reflective communicative action. Here Beck's theorisation of risk society, Luhmann's sociological theory of risk and Gandhi's vehicle of communicative action (or satyagraha) are used to construct a risk-based accountability mechanism, whilst providing insight into Schumacher's concept of total accountability. These accountability constructs will be illustrated through the lived experiences of South Australian citrus horticulturists in the context of a richly layered narrative of competing discourses about global warming. The reiterative process of theory informing practice is used to construct a couple of dialogical vehicles of accountability.

Citation

Saravanamuthu, K. (2009), "A journey of socialising the risks associated with global warming: a Gandhian insight into Schumacher's total accounting and accountability", Saravanamuthu, K. and Lehman, C.R. (Ed.) Extending Schumacher's Concept of Total Accounting and Accountability into the 21st Century (Advances in Public Interest Accounting, Vol. 14), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 121-189. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1041-7060(2009)0000014008