Conclusions: global accountability, sustainability – research prospects

Glen Lehman

Chapter 21 in Handbook of Critical Environmental Accountability and Sustainability, 2026, pp 341-351 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter concludes Part 1 of this Handbook by examining the cosmopolitan and environmental implications of the accounting harmonisation project. The chapter explores processes of globalisation by focusing on Kant's work on cosmopolitan governance. It draws on Foucault's work regarding Kant's concept of a peaceful world. It applies to the accounting harmonisation project, which has been approved by accounting standard-setting bodies worldwide. It is argued that international accounting harmonisation projects extend notions of accounting decision-usefulness and representational faithfulness. However, this only reflects an instrumental stance towards how we account for corporate activity and its impacts on communities. A critical conception of ‘accountability’ is developed in this chapter by exploring ideas for critical environmental accountability through a comparison with postmodern and post-structural accounting models. The chapter aims to balance modernity's dominant and instrumental stance on global social and environmental impacts, which harmonisation perpetuates.

Keywords: Arbitration; Environmental Accounting; Habermas; Kant Decision-Useful (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781802201765
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