Call for paper: Accounting and Accountability for Value and Worth

Accounting and Accountability for Value and Worth

Valuations permeate nearly every facet of contemporary organisational and societal life. Whether explicitly or implicitly, actors across domains are constantly engaged in determining what is valuable, which values matter and how value is represented, produced and distributed. In this context, valuations refer to the situated and socially constructed processes through which entities, performances, people and practices are evaluated, ranked, compared and legitimised (Kornberger et al., 2015). Therefore, valuations influence not only decision-making and governance but also fundamental perceptions of what is worth preserving, changing or investing in.

In today’s world – marked by environmental crises, geopolitical conflicts, inflationary pressures and rising inequality – questions of how to account for value and worth have gained renewed urgency. Studies have, for instance, demonstrated that commensuration enables engaging with accounting to organise during crises (Crvelin & Löhlein, 2022). Accounting, with its calculative and representational accountability tools, is often positioned at the centre of valuation processes (Callon et al., 2007). Whether determining the worth of a public service (Fırtın, 2023), the value of human life (Jeacle, 2022, 2023), or trading prices (Svetlova, 2018), accounting plays a critical role. Yet accounting is not merely a neutral reflector of pre-existing values, as it also actively shapes, constructs and contests valuations (Annisette et al., 2017).

This special issue seeks to advance empirical, theoretical and methodological insights into the interconnections between accounting, valuation and value in uncertain times. We especially invite studies that go beyond traditional conceptions of accounting as a passive recording tool and instead interrogate how accounting contributes to the (re)production of value systems. Multi-level and interdisciplinary analyses that link micro-level practices to organisational and macro-level transformations are particularly encouraged.

We welcome studies that illuminate how accounting acts as a valuation device and a site where notions of value and worth are negotiated and contested. What happens when accounting becomes a valuation-producing machine (Crepaz et al., 2016)? How do valuations shape, and get shaped by, notions of accountability? How do accounting technologies and professionals participate in constructing regimes of value and worth? What are the audit challenges when it regards value and worth? How does accounting interact with broader political, ethical and epistemic struggles about what ought to be valued in times of crisis, transformation or uncertainty?

Topic Areas

The special issue invites diverse methodological and theoretical contributions. We encourage work drawing on ethnographic, netnographic, longitudinal, historical, archival, survey-based or case study methods, among others. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

The mobilisation of accounting valuation techniques (e.g., calculation, quantification, classification, ranking).
Accounting’s interaction with processes of commensuration, financialisation, capitalisation, assetisation or monetisation.
Accounting as a moral and performative instrument in the construction of (accountability for) value or worth.
Valuations undertaken by accounting and auditing professionals, and how these intersect with their roles and identities.
Tracking how valuation practices ‘travel’, cross-boundaries, along with their epistemic and ontological translations.
Accounting’s role in shaping and contesting valuations in relation to socio-political objectives (e.g., ESG, diversity, well-being or care).
Studies on valuation grammars, including reflections on the boundaries between accounting, valuation studies and economic sociology.

By addressing these and related themes, the special issue seeks to foster an innovative space for accounting scholars to reflect on how value and worth are constructed, measured and contested in contemporary organisations and societies.

Guest Editors

Amalie Ringgaard, University College Cork, Ireland

Maude Plante, Université Laval, Canada

Michelle Carr, University College Cork, Ireland

Per Nikolaj Bukh, Aalborg University Business School, Denmark

Submissions Information

Submissions are made using ScholarOne Manuscripts. Author guidelines must be strictly followed.

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Author Guidelines

Authors should select (from the drop-down menu) the special issue title at the appropriate step in the submission process, i.e. in response to “Please select the issue you are submitting to”.

Submitted articles must not have been previously published, nor should they be under consideration for publication anywhere else, while under review for this journal.

For further information, please contact the guest editorial team at: sringgaard@ucc.ie; maude.pare-plante@fsa.ulaval.ca; pnb@business.aau.dk; m.carr@ucc.ie.

We look forward to your submissions.