Accounting for the good life: accounts that break your heart

Marie-Astrid Le Theule, Caroline Lambert and Jérémy Morales

Chapter 30 in Handbook of Accounting in Society, 2024, pp 429-444 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: How does accounting influence the possibilities of leading a ‘good life’? Accounts focused on objectivity produce a reification of the relationships we have with others. Instead, they should render visible the need we have for one another. We therefore need accounts that accompany us in our constitution as moral subjects by confronting us with the vulnerability of others, our own vulnerability, and the ties we have to others. In this chapter, we suggest that this requires accounts that break your heart. An account that breaks your heart is the opposite of objectified accountings that portrays life as a purely individual responsibility. Instead, it reintroduces and reinforces what Levinas calls ‘proximity’ through the recognition that our vulnerability is what makes us ethical. We therefore offer initial lines of thought on the fragile art of crafting accounts that increase such proximity and how we can start accounting for the good life.

Keywords: Business and Management; Economics and Finance; Environment; Sociology and Social Policy; Sustainable Development Goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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