Accounting for public value

James Brackley

Chapter 6 in Handbook of Accounting in Society, 2024, pp 78-90 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Traditional textbook distinctions between public and private accounting have become increasingly problematic as private sector reporting and management techniques proliferate in public sector contexts, and as the public sector has become ever more complex. In moving beyond traditional critiques of New Public Management, this chapter suggests a more open, participatory approach to full(er) cost and full(er) value accounting. Shifting the focus away from reducing costly inputs, ‘balancing the books’, or reductive ‘bottom-line’ accounting, towards a more open ‘value-ing’ of matters of concern. In exploring such examples, I argue that alternative accounts must offer genuine alternatives to disciplinary or coercive measurement practices, instead being iteratively produced through and with a community of stakeholders. Furthermore, I argue that such accounts must go beyond ‘measurement’, speaking to deeper social and planetary concerns in a manner that is convincing, disrupts the social order, and redraws contested boundaries such that we see the world anew.

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

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781803922003.00016 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 503 Service Temporarily Unavailable

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:elg:eechap:21501_6

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla ().