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An analysis of business phenomena and austerity narratives in the arts sector from a new materialist perspective / Helen Oakesa & Steve Oakes. // Accounting and Business Research. Volume 45, N6-7, 2015.
London, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales] Abingdon, UK : Routledge, Taylor & Francis , 2015.
pages 738-764.

The paper adopts a lens of new materialism to analyse narratives of managers in the arts sector in response to the master narrative of austerity and proposed ‘solutions’ using business models (including accounting). It explores the complex trajectories of the master narrative through the analysis of a diverse range of funding and arts organisations. Accounting, business models and austerity reveal rhizomatic characteristics as they diverge from their origin and are implicated in uncertainty about the future and a variety of unintended consequences. Accounting is depicted by many interviewees as not fulfilling many of its promises, thus creating uncertainty regarding its effectiveness. The new materialist approach offers insights into the nature and scale of uncertainty and pays attention to affect and emotion in interviewee responses, fostering an empathetic approach to social analysis. Three implications of new materialism relating to accountability, individual responsibility and inter-organisational communication are highlighted.
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Framing the Magdalen: sentimental narratives and impression management in charity annual reporting / Lisa Evansa & Jacqueline Pierpoint. // Accounting and Business Research. Volume 45, N6-7, 2015.
London, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales] Abingdon, UK : Routledge, Taylor & Francis , 2015.
pages 661-690.

We analyse the annual report narratives, between 1801 and 1914, of the Edinburgh Magdalen Asylum, a reformatory for ‘fallen’ women. We aim to provide new insights by combining interdisciplinary perspectives: the work of Erving Goffman on stigma, asylums, impression management and framing, and writings on literary genres, in particular eighteenth- and nineteenth-century fiction. We also contribute to research on the annual report as source material for social history and to accounting histories of women. We find that the narratives were employed to discharge the directors’ accountability by portraying their work and the asylum as socially and economically useful, accounting for the inmates in their charge, securing funding and finding suitable employment for inmates after release. The narratives and their subjects were framed in accordance with conventions of sentimental novels and recurring literary plot structures. By creating a dichotomy between victims of seduction and ‘hardened’ prostitutes, the directors could manage expectations: not all Magdalens could be saved. On the other hand, this dichotomy allowed the directors to advertise their ‘product’ in the market for domestic labour: Case histories and personal narratives were presented to show that the remorseful Magdalen could become a docile domestic servant and productive citizen.
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The forms of repetition in social and environmental reports: insights from Hume s notion of ‘impressions’ / Caterina Pescia, Ericka Costaa & Teerooven Soobaroyen. // Accounting and Business Research. Volume 45, N6-7, 2015.
London, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales] Abingdon, UK : Routledge, Taylor & Francis , 2015.
pages 765-800.

This paper focuses on the use of repetition, both in narrative and visual forms, in social and environmental reports. It investigates the forms of repetition as a rhetorical device adopted by the preparer of a social and environmental report in helping the process of knowledge acquisition, as outlined by Hume [1739. A Treatise of Human Nature. Available from: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4705/4705-h/4705-h.htm#link2H_4_0006]. Drawing from Hume s (1739) philosophical idea of an ‘impression’, and the work of Davison [2014a. Visual rhetoric and the case of intellectual capital. Accounting Organization and Society, 39 (1), 20–37], we classify repetitions into ‘identical’, ‘similar , and ‘accumulated’ forms. It is argued that the rationale for distinguishing between the different forms of repetition can be linked to their different potential or intensity in acting on different stimuli with a view to enhance learning. The empirical element of this study is based on the stand-alone social and environmental reports of a sample of 86 cooperative banks (CBs) in Northern Italy; the analysis of these reports indicates that repetition is widespread and that CBs use all forms of repetition, albeit to a varying extent within the different reported themes. The paper contributes to the literature by offering an alternative interpretation of repetition using an interdisciplinary perspective and by providing new insights on social and environmental reporting practices in the cooperative banking sector.