Decolonial Studies, Non-Extractive Methods, and Participatory Action Research in Accounting

Cleia Maria da Silva, Fernanda Filgueiras Sauerbronn and Michel Thiollent

RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration), 2022, vol. 26, issue 4, e210014

Abstract: Objective: this paper discusses how accounting supports financial capitalism in the Global South through neocolonialist languages and practices, aiming to put forth a decolonial agenda based on non-extractive methodologies to recover alternative knowledge and (re)build new ones. Method: we revisited critical accounting literature, connecting it to decolonial epistemology. We described the assumptions behind different non-extractive methods and contrasted participatory action research (PAR) with different approaches to knowledge production and consumption. We also outlined some PAR operational strategies, discussed action research in management and accounting studies, and examined the potential for a participatory accounting agenda. Results: non-extractive methods can respect and value different worldviews in each social phenomenon. This points to non-traditional and emancipatory research alternatives to produce a new sentipensante in accounting to decolonize knowledge, bodies, and minds. Conclusions: this paper presents PAR as allowing (re)existence of different worldviews by recognizing its ability to recover and rebuild knowledge ‘with’ participants. PAR supports programmatic engagement with subalternized voices to coproduce pluriversality in accounting — instead of reproducing universalisms — and bolsters academics and practitioners to transcend Western modernity.

Date: 2022
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