Framing financial responsibility: An analysis of the limitations of accounting

Charlotta Bay

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, 2011, vol. 22, issue 6, 593-607

Abstract: In organisations, accounting—understood broadly as calculative practices—is claimed to serve as a critical vehicle when introducing forms of individual financial responsibility. Whereas most prior accounting research has been preoccupied with asserting this claim, this paper opens an opportunity to examine the limitations of accounting as a technology of responsibilisation. It does so by moving the empirical focus beyond the borders of people's work settings and into the private sphere of everyday life, investigating governmental efforts to turn high school students into financially responsible citizens. The analysis, informed by framing theory, reveals that the efficiency of accounting is conditioned by people's calculative understanding. Hence, in situations where individuals are expected to lack this basic calculative competency, accounting is presumed to be inappropriate as a means of introducing financial responsibility. This has implications for re-considering how the relation between accounting and responsibility is constituted.

Keywords: Accounting limitations; Responsibilisation; Financial education; Private sphere; Choice-making discourse; Framing analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:22:y:2011:i:6:p:593-607

DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2011.03.001

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