The Construction of Faith in Accounting: The United Nation’s Decision to Adopt IPSAS

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Abstract

This paper has sought to explore how generic globalized accounting ideas and instruments come to be translated into a local solution at the United Nations (UN) in response to the oil-for-food scandal. To do so, we analysed the official, published, rationales for reform and considered the role of key protagonists within the reform process. A number of themes emerged from the analysis. We argue that the process of instilling faith in accounting at the UN relies heavily on the clever and varying use of an extrapolative logic derived from a master-idea of the need to ‘do more accounting’ to persuade reformers to take on particular ideas and instruments of accounting. The work of propagating such logic was facilitated by a closed system of protagonists who form a tight interlocking network.
Original languageEnglish
Publication date9 Jul 2014
Number of pages24
Publication statusPublished - 9 Jul 2014
Event2014 Critical Perspectives on Accounting Conference - Schulich School of Business, Toronto, Canada
Duration: 7 Jul 20149 Jul 2014
http://criticalperspectivesonaccounting.com/

Conference

Conference2014 Critical Perspectives on Accounting Conference
LocationSchulich School of Business
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityToronto
Period07/07/201409/07/2014
Internet address

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