Accountability, Social Responsibility and Sustainability: Accounting for Society and the Environment Free

Accountability, Social Responsibility and Sustainability is a rewrite and continued development of a, probably the, classic text (Accounting and Accountability, 1996, which was, itself, a rewrite of Corporate Social Responsibility, 1987) in the field of social accounting (accountability, social responsibility and sustainability). My cinema experience suggests that a sequel to a sequel generally has the entertainment value of about 10 per cent of the original. However, in this situation, the heuristic does not hold. This seminal text represents close to 100 years of cumulative experience working in the field of accountability, social responsibility and sustainability, years filled with both phenomenal successes as well as discouraging disappointments. Thus, it is a cautionary tale, brutally realistic, uniquely insightful and guardedly hopeful, drawing on the authors’ collective research, observations and ruminations in conjunction with an encyclopedic grasp and integration of the extant literature in the field to which the authors have been primary contributors.

The stated audience includes “scholars, students, teachers, practitioners, researchers and policy makers who recognize the central role accounting, finance, accountability, CSR and sustainability play in the future of society and the planet” (p. 16) with the primary focus on teachers, students and researchers. The motivation for (re)writing the text was to reflect the significant changes in the field and the world over the 20 years since the publication of Accounting and Accountability as well as to:

The stated “political motif” is that:

In addition to an overall tone of militant urgency, the revision, while still attentive to accounting, takes a more management, organizational and societal perspective, expanding the context and scope. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability are more fully differentiated and conceptually developed, recognizing the social construction of CSR and the physical reality of sustainability. The discussion lays bare the paradoxes, the conflicts, the contradictions and the conundrums that arise as irreconcilable demands of corporate responsibility, social and environmental sustainability collide with the demands of neoliberalism and global market capitalism. The content is both theoretical and practical, providing excellent summaries of the extant literature associated with the topics considered. Also, the historical perspective takes on added salience in that the authors have been deeply engaged not only as chroniclers but also as participants in making that history.

The book begins with a discussion of the historical and theoretical foundations of the field as a basis for considering specific areas of interest and application. The work concludes with reflections and proposals as to what the future could, should and does hold. The areas for which an expanded discussion and updating are developed include employees and unions, the environment, social and community issues and the social audit movement. New chapters address: finance and financial issues; alternative and integrated reporting; non-private sector organizations, such as government, NGOs, NFPs and social enterprise; and issues related to organizational governance, attestation and institutions. The last two chapters outline an ambitious research program to take social accounting well into the twenty-first century, assuming humans as a species have that much time.

The authors’ conceptualization of accountability as the duty to provide stakeholders with the necessary information to which they are entitled provides the legitimating and organizing principle to the presentation. The criteria, and therefore the information needed, for holding an organization accountable for its social responsibility may be different from the information needed to hold it accountable for the extent to which its actions are sustainable. This distinction allows the authors to present and critique the issues discussed in a way that differentiates between, for example, the arguments surrounding the business case for CSR, distinguishing them from those associated with the business case of sustainability. CSR is recognized as socially constructed and, therefore, the criteria might be more open to deliberation and debate. The criteria for evaluating a sustainable corporation, particularly from an ecological perspective, seem more tangible. Thus, the information needs might be substantially different as might be evaluations of the organization’s performance.

Given that I am quite sympathetic with the authors’ skepticism and sense of urgency, I found the tenor of the presentation to be generally balanced in terms of content, recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of the various positions considered. The perspective taken is a decidedly modernist one, though recognizing the relevance and contribution of post-structuralist and post-modernist theorists and thought. From one perspective, there are sections that might be more succinct and focused, but, in my opinion, it would dampen the “personality” of the text that moves the reading beyond that of the typical textbook.

The book represents a major work in the field of social accounting, broadly defined, as it is in the text. It provides an introduction to and elaboration on the fundamental elements of the field. The authors go to great lengths to integrate the relevant literature in the areas of social, environmental and sustainability accounting, reporting and management CSR. Overall, this volume provides a valuable and ambitious presentation of the field of social accounting and a realistic basis for moving forward with a relevant research agenda.