Auditing and Environmental Expertise: Between Protest and Professionalisation

Recent initiatives in environmental audit prompt questions about the nature of the technical expertise upon which such practices may depend. At the heart of these practices lie expert constructions of environmental risk. It is suggested, on the basis of a deconstructed principal‐agent framework, that accounting‐based environmental audits have the potential to constrain social perceptions of corporate accountability and environmentally‐relevant action.