De l'impossibilité d'agir à distance: Quantification comptable et territorialisation dans les bagnes coloniaux de Guyane (1852-1867)

Antoine Fabre and Pierre Labardin
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Pierre Labardin: DRM - Dauphine Recherches en Management - Université Paris Dauphine-PSL - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: The aim of this paper is to pursue the work of Asdal (2011), focusing on limitations of accounting to act at a distance. Drawing on insights offered by notions of accounting inscription and territorialization, we identify such factors that inhibit the efficiency of action at a distance exploring daily quantification practices in organizations. Drawing on the introduction of accounting in French Guiana penal colonies in mid-nineteenth century, we highlight series of choices and effects faced by actors in charge of accounting. We point out combinations of such effects and choices that lead to emergence of inefficiency factors of action at a distance. Recording procedures may entrench preexisting practices that they are supposed to prevent. Monetary valuation and data aggregation processes, isolating quantified objects from larger causal relationships, may generate unexpected effects than those planned initially

Keywords: action at a distance; territorialization; quantification practices; accounting history; nineteenth century; action à distance; territorialisation; pratiques de quantification; histoire de la comptabilité; XIXe siècle (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-05-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Published in Transitions numériques et informations comptables, May 2018, Nantes, France. pp.cd-rom

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