An Awkward Signal: The ‘Petroleum and Minerals’ Imprint on the First Conference on Accounting, Governance and Sustainability

Yves Gendron

Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, 2024, vol. 44, issue 1, 6-16

Abstract: This essay was prompted by an ‘atypical’ announcement, regarding an Accounting, Governance and Sustainability Conference co-organized by the American Accounting Association (AAA) and the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. I mobilise an epistemological base, drawing on Naomi Oreskes’ recent work, to question the logic and the appropriateness of associating Petroleum and Minerals’ interests with an academic conference on the topic of sustainability. My point is that significant epistemological consequences ensue when a ‘mere’ association of words arouses skepticism regarding the extent of conflict of interest surrounding an event being aimed at fostering knowledge production and dissemination processes on the theme of sustainability. One feature of my argument is that involving explicitly as co-organizer, in the frontstage, a university whose name carries the wording ‘Petroleum and Minerals’ constitutes an awkward signal, which is a disconcerting occurrence given the strong influence of ‘signaling theory’ in the eyes of many AAA members, who adhere to mainstream economic-based accounting research.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0969160X.2024.2320300 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:seaccj:v:44:y:2024:i:1:p:6-16

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/REAJ20

DOI: 10.1080/0969160X.2024.2320300

Access Statistics for this article

Social and Environmental Accountability Journal is currently edited by Jeffrey Unerman, John Ferguson and Jan Bebbington

More articles in Social and Environmental Accountability Journal from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().