Accounting History Research:Traditional and New Accounting History Perspectives

Salvador Carmona, Mahmoud Ezzamel and Fernando Gutiérrez

De Computis "Revista Española de Historia de la Contabilidad". De Computis "Spanish Journal of Accounting History"., 2004, issue 1, 24-53

Abstract: Existe un debate en historia de la contabilidad acerca de las distintas formas cómo los materiales históricos deben ser recopilados, interpretados, analizados y, finalmente, sobre la forma cómo los mismos deben ser redactados. En cierta manera, el centro de este debate descansa en torno a la eterna polémica acerca de la “objetividad/subjetividad” de la investigación histórica. Así, mientras que la corriente más ortodoxa sostiene la idea de una interpretación objetiva de la historia, el enfoque alternativo defiende una interpretación de carácter crítico. En este artículo, nosotros pretendemos hacer una valoración del debate entre los enfoques tradicional y de nueva historia de la contabilidad. There is an ongoing debate in accounting history around the ways in which historical material should be gathered, interpreted, analysed and written. Lying at the heart of this debate is the perennial concern with ‘objective/interpretive’ modes of investigation. The mainstream orthodoxy of accounting history embraces the ‘objective’ view of history, whereas the alternative approach promotes interpretive and critical stances. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the achievements of NAH. This is attempted here by contrasting NAH with TAH along four dimensions: what counts as accounting; origins versus genealogies; roles of accounting; and sources of historical material. Under each of these dimensions, we show the differences between the two approaches and comment on the extent to which NAH may contribute to the study of accounting history.

Keywords: Nueva Historia de la Contabilidad; Historia Tradicional de la Contabilidad; Investigación Archivística. New Accounting History; Traditional Accounting History; Archival Research. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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