TY - JOUR

T1 - Accounting and sustainable development

T2 - An exploration

AU - Bebbington, Jan

AU - Larrinaga, Carlos

PY - 2014/8/1

Y1 - 2014/8/1

N2 - As the social and environmental impacts of human activity have become more evident, the role of sustainable development as an organising principle in a variety of policy contexts and over multiple scales has become central. There are, at least, two implications that emerge from this observation. First, morally infused problems that need to be addressed have become more intractable, requiring innovation in our modes of thinking. Second, new spaces have emerged where the academy might explore how knowledge is created, validated and translated (or not) alongside policy and practice settings. One outcome of these trends has been the emergence of a stream of work (sustainability science) which investigates how disciplines might develop knowledge that progresses sustainable development. The aim of this paper, in line with the focus of the special issue, is to explore what possibilities emerge for accounting in light of a sustainability science approach. To achieve this end the paper starts with an exploration of the frustrations expressed in the literature over the perceived lack of progress made by social and environmental accounting towards addressing sustainable development. The paper then introduces sustainability science with the aim of imagining how an accounting for sustainable development might emerge. The paper closes with two illustrations of how a sustainability science approach to accounting could develop.

AB - As the social and environmental impacts of human activity have become more evident, the role of sustainable development as an organising principle in a variety of policy contexts and over multiple scales has become central. There are, at least, two implications that emerge from this observation. First, morally infused problems that need to be addressed have become more intractable, requiring innovation in our modes of thinking. Second, new spaces have emerged where the academy might explore how knowledge is created, validated and translated (or not) alongside policy and practice settings. One outcome of these trends has been the emergence of a stream of work (sustainability science) which investigates how disciplines might develop knowledge that progresses sustainable development. The aim of this paper, in line with the focus of the special issue, is to explore what possibilities emerge for accounting in light of a sustainability science approach. To achieve this end the paper starts with an exploration of the frustrations expressed in the literature over the perceived lack of progress made by social and environmental accounting towards addressing sustainable development. The paper then introduces sustainability science with the aim of imagining how an accounting for sustainable development might emerge. The paper closes with two illustrations of how a sustainability science approach to accounting could develop.

KW - SOCIAL-RESPONSIBILITY DISCLOSURE

KW - ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT TOOLS

KW - POST-NORMAL SCIENCE

KW - ECOLOGICAL ECONOMICS

KW - COST-BENEFIT

KW - STAKEHOLDER

KW - CARBON

KW - ORGANIZATIONS

KW - TECHNOLOGIES

KW - GOVERNANCE

U2 - 10.1016/j.aos.2014.01.003

DO - 10.1016/j.aos.2014.01.003

M3 - Journal article

VL - 39

SP - 395

EP - 413

JO - Accounting, Organizations and Society

JF - Accounting, Organizations and Society

SN - 0361-3682

IS - 6

ER -