Accounting 101: redefining accounting for tomorrow

ABSTRACT

What is accounting today? Are conventional definitions of accounting adequate for the early 2020s? What definition do you teach? Accounting is positioned in this study as not a mere neutral, benign, technical practice. It is also a social practice and moral practice as understood based on the important research of accounting scholars across the past 40 years. The paper supports a new definition of accounting as technical, social and moral practice, proposed by Carnegie, G., Parker, L., & Tsahuridu, E. [(2021a). It’s 2020: what is accounting today? Australian Accounting Review, 31(1), 65–73. https://doi.org/10.1111/auar.12325; (2021b). Redefining accounting for tomorrow. IFAC Knowledge Gateway, April 6. https://www.ifac.org/knowledge-gateway/preparing-future-ready-professionals/discussion/redefining-accounting-tomorrow]. The era of calculative order in which we live is illuminated using a tailored case study on global university rankings, using the lens of the proposed definition of accounting. It is intended to provide a better understanding globally of the effects of accounting emergence and change to both professional accountants and non-accountants. Readers may ask ‘why’? Accounting has not attained its full potential and can contribute to shaping a better world from tomorrow.

KEYWORDS:

• Accounting as technical, social and moral practice
• accounting definition
• accounting education
• accounting for a better world
• redefining accounting

Acknowledgements

Appreciation is expressed to the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier iterations of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 This is the inaugural editorial prepared by the founding editors of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal who, at the time of writing, continue in these roles.

2 This advice was provided by J. Owen, who conducted the Royal Commission inquiry into the collapse of HIH Insurance Group (AICD, 2021).

3 Refer, for instance, to this link, which repeats this 1941 definition, see: https://www.accountingverse.com/accounting-basics/what-is-accounting.html (last accessed 27 October 2021).

4 See: Accounting – Wikipedia (last visited 27 October 2021).

5 Governments can exercise a degree of surveillance and control over public sector universities based on such quantified performance standards or metrics (Parker et al., 2021).

6 The Shanghai Academic Rankings of World Universities (ARWU) is the first ranking of global universities, established in 2003, and their numbers have multiplied since that time (Hazelkorn, 2019; Peters, 2019, and also University Rankings.ch at: https://www.universityrankings.ch/results/overview_of_rankings (last accessed 27 October 2021)).

7 See World's best Bioethics/Medical Ethics universities [Rankings] (edurank.org) (last accessed 27 October 2021).

8 See https://www.2025.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/uploads/unsw_2025strategy_201015.pdf (last accessed 27 October 2021).

9 See Vision and values – The University of Sydney (last accessed 27 October 2021).

10 See Advancing Melbourne (unimelb.edu.au) (last accessed 27 October 2021).

11 See: Corporate documents: Governance at The University of Manchester (last accessed 27 October 2021).

12 See: 202007_uoe_annual_accounts_2020_27_online.pdf (ed.ac.uk) (last accessed 27 October 2021).

13 For the mission and visions statements, see: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/about/our-profile/strategy (last accessed 27 October 2021).

14 Refer to https://publications.docstore.port.ac.uk/A902860.pdf and https://www.port.ac.uk/about-us/our-ambition/our-strategy (both last accessed 27 October 2021).

15 Hazelton (2019) argues ‘there is no such thing as an objective ranking’.