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A geographer sees food less perhaps as a commodity on the table or in the oven than as a product of the land. He attempts to understand the complex relationship between sun and soil, winds and water, and man's activities which produces here potatoes, or there rice, in one place abundance or in another, famine.

Globalization has brought about migration and the transnational movement of people from different backgrounds, cultures, ethnicities, using different languages, and has thereby facilitated intercultural interaction and re-interpretation of lived experiences. Gender research in accounting is also influenced by globalization, which has created a platform where different cultures can meet and interact, and where knowledge can be synthesized from the work of authors from various different countries. Building on my own research experiences and their outcomes, this study examines the globalization of gender research in accounting by tracing the development of research on the relationship between Japanese women and accounting. The experiences of Japan highlight that knowledge in accounting, including gender-in-accounting studies, historically flows from West to East. The language, concepts and framework in existing Western-led accounting studies translate and visualize the history and phenomena in a Japanese context to be shared within the international accounting arena.

This study demonstrates that this process provides a body of interesting evidence from Japanese contexts in the fields of history, household accounting and professionalization. Accounting played an enabling role for women in Japan, while positioning women to act as catalysts for social change. Questions arise regarding the potential for such findings (from the East) to flow to the West and be accorded equal status to Western-led accounting research. The study concludes by discussing, in terms of achieving sustainable and innovative knowledge creation in accounting, the importance of herstory in understanding local culture and its integration into ‘global’ academic research.

This study was based on the perceptions of lecturers and black CTA students at Unisa, a South African distance education university regarding on factors that contribute to black students’ academic success and failure. The main purposes of the study were to help black CTA students to understand the reasons for success and failure better, and to improve lecturers’ teaching approach(es). The research shows that students and lecturers have divergent views on what factors contribute to academic success or failure and the relative importance of the various factors.

The purpose of this paper is to revisit the issue of the entry of women into the Anglo-Australian accounting profession in the Second World War and provide insights on the role that gender, class, and ethnicity played in mediating women’s relations with the accounting profession in that period.

The study is based on the narratives of three women from diverse social backgrounds who entered the Anglo-Australian profession during this period.

The analysis indicates that while participants had the mindset needed for accounting work, the more removed the individual’s perceived social identity was from her perception of the dominant British, white, middle-class ideology of the profession, the less likely she was to embrace the opportunity to join the accounting profession. The distance was anchored in social (ethnicity and class) and historical forces. The study also finds that the appropriation of education and credentials ameliorated disadvantages accruing from gender and working-class status.

This study has implications for our understanding of the accounting profession and what is required to reduce the risks of marginalization in a contemporary setting.

The study provides a richer understanding of how class and ethnicity shape the female experience differently. The results also demonstrate that in times of social change, the processes of inclusion and exclusion are not confined to the deliberations of the accounting profession but also the individual. Whether the women valued accounting as an occupation depended on whether or not if offered them the freedom to achieve what they valued most. At the same time, however, the freedom to realize what they valued most was a function of class and ethnicity. Finally, the results demonstrate the capacity of unique experience to shape the perceptions, aspirations and actions of women.

This paper aims to explore the intersection of disability and accounting employment.

The paper uses oral history accounts of 12 disabled accountants. The authors investigate narrators' experiences of being disabled people and professional accountants, identify the barriers they encounter in professional employment, and how they (re)negotiate professional work.

The narrators' accounts are complex and diverse. The narratives record a discourse of success, offset by the consistent identification of social and environmental barriers relating to limited opportunities, resources, and support.

The paper develops the limited research on the relationship between disability and the accounting profession, expands the limited literature on disabled professionals' experience of work, provides voice for disabled accountants, adds to the limited oral histories available within accounting, and augments the accumulated literature considering the accounting profession and minorities.

This paper aims to make an assessment of the contribution made by accounting histories of women produced since 1992 and the current state of knowledge production in this subject area.

The study is based on a review of published sources on accounting history and women's, gender and feminist history.

Whereas feminist historians and historians of gender boast substantial advances in research and transformative impacts on the wider discipline of history, similar momentum is less evident in accounting history. It is argued that over the past 15 years scholarship has remained substantially in the “recovery” phase, has not “defamiliarized” the sub‐field and is yet to engage with developments in feminist and gender historiography which offer regenerative potential.

The paper argues that sex and gender differentiation persist in both the past and the present and their study should feature large on the accounting history research agenda.

Core themes in feminist and gender history are explored with a view to identifying research questions for accounting historians. These themes include the oppression and subordination of women, the public‐private divide, restoring women to history, devising new periodisations, investigating socio‐cultural relations, and the construction of identities.

Purpose – Although the proportion of women accountants is rising steadily, their number in partnership position remains constant. This article explores this phenomenon in an attempt (a) to identify the reasons behind it and (b) clarify which are the barriers that hinder female accountants from being in the top echelon of the accounting practice in an emerging economy like Cyprus.

Methodology/approach – The study reported in this article builds on two previous studies, quantitative in nature, carried out by one of the present authors. Utilising the findings of the two earlier studies, the authors use a qualitative approach to further explore the reasons as to why there is a ‘concrete wall’ for women in accounting practices at partnership level.

Findings – In contrast to other studies, the present study found that the prohibiting factor creating the barrier is not motherhood but the cultural attitudes and expectations of men imposed on mothers. Another finding is that despite the fact that there is a bigger pool of women today in senior manager positions, it is uncertain if the proportion of female partners will rise in a decade.

Research limitations – Although the qualitative study utilising interviews of both genders identified interesting concerns for the local accounting profession, these findings cannot be representative of all emerging economies.

Practical implications – The article adds to existing knowledge by clarifying the reasons discouraging women accountants from reaching partnership positions. Findings are of interest to industry stakeholders who wish (a) to attract more women accountants to partnership positions and (b) to develop an environment that addresses women's concerns and enhances their career aspirations towards reaching the top echelon of their profession.

Originality/value of article – Most research in this field utilises quantitative or qualitative research independently. In this research we utilise the results of the quantitative studies to indentify in depth the ‘real’ rather than the ‘imaginary’ barrier facing women accountants from entering partnership. Furthermore, this is the first time this is studied in an emerging economy, whereas all other studies are in developed economies.

Seeks to explore the interplay of accounting and the broad social roles and contexts in which it is manifested.

By mapping the origins of our current place in the world, a cacophony of ideas and philosophies emerge, and thus many possible trajectories for our future. Why (for example) are we witnessing “corporate” crime, environmental degradation, and mal‐distributions of wealth? As these are the complicated acts of individual people while simultaneously the interactions of broad social histories, we see two pieces of this puzzle – one “grand,” one “small,” and view accounting as a part of these social practices creating relationships, collaborations, and conflicts. The micro piece of the puzzle is the inner psyche of each person, while the macro aspect appeals to the legacy of critical theory * we are socially constructed and inexorably linked to our social environment. In this paper, we link these two pieces of our puzzle illustrating with examples that the personal is political.

Concludes that “Like the salt in the stew, you cannot separate the two” aspects of who we are (from the song “Salt” by Lizz Wright 2003). Psychologically and socially we are presented with impressions, discourses, beliefs and interpretations; we act upon these, and we are mediated by “private” and “public” social practices.

As part of the environment, we re‐create the world, offering new forms of signification and through this humans can re‐conceive new social realties and negotiate “the public interest.”

The use of psychology to reflect on accounting's origins in “personae” and the illustrations of broader social conscience illuminates the connectedness of individual and social values, the complexities of “who we are” and “why we are,” and the power in creating alternative social constructions.

The paper draws attention to the potential of some strands of postmodern and related work for stimulating and furthering research into accounting and indigenous cultures and peoples. We overview some key areas of interest, showing their interface with accounting in general and with the papers published in this special issue in particular. We end our elaborations with suggestions for further research.

To present a case for accounting and finance academics to have a more active social role.

A range of published works by “public intellectuals” on praxis is presented. Each theorist could be considered to be an eminent theoretician in their own right; what marks them out is that they have developed their theories by active engagement.

The economic and political interests of the world in which academics operate are perpetuated by the creation of a breed of intellectuals who encounter significant challenges not only to questioning the status quo but, perhaps more importantly, to venturing outside of the academy. Yet, arguably there has never been a more important time for academics to do just that. Academics are armed with the necessary theoretical and research skills to bring coherence to fledgling movements and to enable them to overcome the barriers created by the myths perpetuated to hamper social protest.

This paper offers practical and theoretical advice to enable and encourage accounting and finance academics to enrich their work by active engagement with the social problems of the time.