RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Taking the world seriously: Autonomy, reflexivity and engagement research in social and environmental accounting
A1 Correa, Carmen
A1 Laine, Matías
A1 Larrinaga González, Carlos
K1 Engagement research
K1 Bourdieu
K1 Intellectual fields
K1 Intellectual autonomy
K1 Scientific capital
K1 Social and environmental accounting
K1 Practical reason
K1 Contabilidad social
K1 Social accounting
K1 Inversiones éticas
K1 Investments-Moral and ethical aspects
AB There is a long-standing debate within the social and environmental accounting research community concerning whether research engagement with (commercial) organisations and decision-makers is detrimental to the pursuit of sustainability transformation. Those critical of engagement research see such an approach as futile or outright harmful, suggesting that scholars are bound to be co-opted in the process and essentially end up reproducing systems of domination. In response, we emphasise in this paper how engagement research requires an exercise of reflexivity, which, hopefully, makes us “more conscious and more systematic” about engagement research and provides “the mutual surveillance” (Bourdieu, 2000b, p. 119) required for this academic exercise. Drawing on Bourdieu’s Pascalian Meditations, we discuss the implications of the notions of intellectual autonomy and scientific capital in the field of social and environmental accounting research and stress that both the scholastic situation and engagement with the social world are necessary elements for scholarship. We argue, on the one hand, that critical research in social and environmental accounting is a key mechanism to enhance the scientific capital of the field—through improved theorising of power and conflict—and hence retain (strengthen) the autonomy of social and environmental accounting. On the other hand, we also suggest that reinvigorating research on the relevance of accounting techniques for sustainable development is essential for our scientific capital and the wider contribution of social accounting across intellectual fields and beyond.
PB Elsevier
SN 1045-2354
YR 2023
FD 2023-12
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10259/9258
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10259/9258
LA eng
NO We wish to thank Editor Yves Gendron and the two anonymous referees for their substantial comments challenging us to develop, reflect upon and clarify our thinking. We are grateful for the financial assistance provided by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, FEDER, Academy of Finland and Consejería de Educación, Junta de Castilla y León (Grants ECO2015-65782-P, RTI2018-099920-B-I00 and BU058P17). Previous drafts of this paper were presented at the 2015 IPA Conference in Stockholm and at a research seminar in Strathclyde University.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Burgos
RD 07-ene-2025