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The increasing availability of telematics has provided information users with more effective mechanisms for accessing information. Nevertheless, the lack of standardised methodologies that integrate information storage and retrieval systems and therefore facilitate interaction between the users and such systems impedes more widespread use of these new resources. While teleprocessing provides the means for direct searching in remote databases, the lack of a common methodology for access is troublesome for the user since s/he must master all of the specific and different characteristics of the retrieval procedures adopted by each host centre for the databases. These problems began to emerge in Brazil in 1985, with the creation of the National Packet Switching Network (RENPAC—Rede Nacional de Comutação de Pacotes). This paper discusses the situation and the state of computerisation in Brazil which led to RENPAC being created. It goes on to describe the network model and how the Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia (IBICT), together with other centres, has set up a project and guidelines for the creation of an integrated system for public access to databases. These guidelines, which are described in this article, include the design and implementation of a common information retrieval language (LINCE), the interconnection of database host centres by means of RENPAC, and the automation of procedures for requesting copies of articles in a network of libraries.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.