Oral-aural accounting and the management of the Jesuit corpus

Jose Bento da Silva, Nick Llewellyn and Fiona Anderson-Gough

Accounting, Organizations and Society, 2017, vol. 59, issue C, 44-57

Abstract: The roles of written and visual accounting techniques in establishing conditions of possibility in modern management decision making are well documented. In contrast, this paper looks beyond the “grammatocentric”, and analyzes a practice of oral accounting – the Account of Conscience – that began in the Society of Jesus in the sixteenth century, and has persisted largely unchanged to the present day. In this practice, we see historically relevant pastoral practices evolving into techniques of government that begin to resemble modern governmentality. The paper compels a more general consideration of oral–aural practices and their role in constructing relationships of authority and accountability.

Keywords: Oral accounting; Account of conscience; Pastoral power; Foucault; Jesuits; History (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:59:y:2017:i:c:p:44-57

DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2017.04.003

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