Veranstaltungen Detail

Sustainable development: Accounting and the citizen

Beschreibung


Accountants are often blamed for driving us to make decisions that
add to climate change, justify the pollution of air, land and sea,
exploit natural resources and shrink workers’ wages while increasing
corporate fat cats’ pay. Though in many cases this is true, it is not
the whole story of the relationships between accounting, citizens and
sustainable development. Accounting has infiltrated most social
institutions and has a significant, if sometimes invisible, impact in
the decisions that affect our life, economy and environment. Accounting
is everywhere - although it relies on calculative rationality and
complicated arithmetic, it is far from objective or neutral.


Research has uncovered many examples of how accounting has been used
in a transformative way by civic society, non-governmental organisations
(NGOs), political institutions, citizens and business organisations.
There are accounting practices that problematise socially irresponsible,
oppressive and environmentally damaging actions and calculate the value
of social justice, economic development and sustainable consumption.
Sustainable development involves a diverse range of governance systems,
related to the inter-connected social, economic and biophysical
processes associated with our planet. There are many different ways in
which accounting could and should be involved in sustainable
development. This includes evaluating the capacity and rights of
different groups and individuals, to provide accounts and participate in
the governance of issues that impact their lives and their environment.


Professor Thomson’s lecture will present the concept of the citizen
accounting, audit and accountability for sustainable transformation.
Citizen accounting is an important missing piece of the accountability
jigsaw. Mirroring developments in citizen journalism and citizen
science, there is merit in developing the ‘citizen accountant’ and
‘citizen auditor’. Citizen accounting complements and challenges formal
organisational accounts of their actions, and uses our individual
capacity for collecting facts and stories. The lecture will use a range
of examples, including 17th century air pollution in London, the
contested development of salmon farming in Scotland, human rights abuse
in Nigeria and political engagements on climate change.


Professor Ian Thomson is
Professor of Accounting and Sustainability at the University of
Birmingham. His research focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of
current plans to promote sustainable accounting, creating solutions to
unsustainable practices and designing of new sustainability-accounting
hybrid practices. He has been the convener of the Centre for Social and
Environmental Accounting Research, a leading international research
network, since 2012 and is on the editorial board of six academic
journals. Prior to joining University of Birmingham, he was Professor of
Accountancy at Heriot-Watt University and Strathclyde Business School.
Professor Thomson is a Chartered Management Accountant; before becoming
an academic, he held senior accounting positions in the NHS and BBC
Scotland.




Veranstalter

For more information, please contact Lucy Guest, Marketing and Events Administrator for the College of Social Sciences either by email or by phone on 01214143347.

Kontakt

Teilnehmende WiWi Partner

  • Birmingham Business School
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