Critical Accounting Activism and the Public Sphere

This paper explores the recent trends that have influenced how we understand modern accountability relationships. These relationships involve how corporations relate to their external stakeholders and other significant parties. A continuum of ideas is introduced to investigate these obligations and suggest some ways forward. In particular, liberal, communicative and radical arguments are discussed to consider how accounting might democratise the institutions of civil society. Thereby providing ideas about how accounting can contribute to the current financialisation and ecological problems confronting modern communities. The approach is necessarily a theoretical one and explores whether accounting for the public interest can ever satisfy accountability relationships. One aspect of accounting’s public role can be critiqued by examining the extent to which they provide common and public goods.