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- Carlson Ingdahl, Tina
(author)
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Människor, skjortor och siffror : reducera komplexitet och en order blir till
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- More than 35 years ago, calls were made for research on the constitutive role of accounting. Since then, many statements have been made to specify what accounting is or is not. This study describes what accounting does, in order to amalgamate a fragmented picture of accounting in practice, instead of seeking the answer to the existential question of what accounting really is. The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe what accounting does, and how this is done on the basis of business meetings in order to contribute to a better understanding of the role of accounting in practice. This study is based on the actor-network theory approach. Particular attention has been paid to accounting as named numbers, when becoming a performative participant in framed situations. The framed situations of business meetings contained three elements; 1) pure calculation, 2) qualculation which include both calculation and judgments, and 3) calqulation as a collective social process. An ethnographically inspired field study was carried out at Eton Fashion AB, a Swedish shirt making company. Data was collected by participant observations of business meetings supported by interviews. Photography, sound recording, and field notes were used as techniques for documentation. Diagnoses of five business meetings revealed that; 1) accounting restricted time, place and content, 2) accounting brought past and future into the present, 3) accounting summarized and obscured discontinuities, 4) accounting defined people and things, and 5) accounting called for the filling of content. Accounting became an actor in these five ways as they were allied with people and things that appeared in the meetings. Accounting was in a context where people made sense of situations by making both estimates and judgments. During the meetings, an ongoing reduction of complexity was taking place. Step by step, diversity and complexity were reduced until an order filled with numbers was the only thing remaining. At the same time, something was gained, as we step by step achieved greater legibility, transportability and universality. In this way the situation could subsist. It might move to new situations and it might allow for new summaries and new situations to take place. The situation of a meeting contained elements of pure calculation representing the cold, anonymous and empty part. Often though, calculation, because of its emptiness, initiated for qualculation and calqulation to begin. Accounting as an idea is a taken for granted phenomenon, with influence, often far beyond what we can see when we find ourselves in a given situation. I conclude that it could have been some other way. It is not accounting in itself, its own excellence or ability to represent the truth, which makes it successful. The success story of accounting is simply about “the others” with whom accounting is an ally.
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| 2. |
- Carlson Ingdahl, Tina, 1973-, et al.
(author)
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Redovisningens roll för hållbar utveckling
- 2015
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- I rapporten behandlas de utmaningar och problem men även möjligheter som redovisning som fenomen har i att vara en del i att möta hållbarhetsutmaningar i samhället. Vi ger en beskrivning av dagens praxis gällande hållbarhetsredovisning och dess bristande förmåga att spegla hållbarhet eller ohållbarhet utifrån begreppet hållbar utveckling. I rapporten problematiseras också kring hållbarhetsredovisningens förmåga att spegla ett etiskt redovisningsansvar och att identifiera problem; ekonomiskt, miljömässigt och socialt.Syftet med rapporten är att utifrån dagens praktik inom den externa redovisningen identifiera utmaningar och möjligheter för att åstadkomma en mer relevant redovisning som speglar organisationers betydelsefulla aktiviteter, ambitioner och resultat miljömässigt, socialt och ekonomiskt. Ett övergripande syfte är att ge en möjlig riktning för hur redovisning kan bli en betydelsefull aktör i strävan mot ökad hållbarhet.Rapporten visar på problematiken kring brister dels i redovisningens förmåga att spegla resultatet av organisationers hållbarhetsarbete, dels i kopplingen mellan hållbarhetsredovisningen och organisationens strategiska riktning. Ytterligare en aspekt som lyfts fram handlar om hållbarhetsredovisningens bristande koppling till begreppet hållbar utveckling. Rådande internationella finansiella ramverk för redovisning i marknadsnoterade företag och en i olika avseenden frikopplad hållbarhetsredovisning, utan uppenbar relevans för beslutsfattande internt och externt, kan utgöra ett hinder för en utveckling av redovisningen till att få en roll för hållbar utveckling. För att redovisningen ska få en ökad betydelse i detta avseende föreslås ett mer pluralistiskt angreppssätt och en mer etiskt inriktad redovisning som tydligare speglar ett vidgat redovisningsansvar.
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| 3. |
- Carlson Ingdahl, Tina, 1973-, et al.
(author)
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The role of accounting for sustainability
- 2015
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Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The presentation will be based on a report which is to be published in the report series “Styrning, organisering och ledning” at the Faculty of Textiles, Engineering and Business. The report has been presented and discussed in a research group at the faculty. The report will form the basis for the construction of research questions and a selection of empirical settings for further research with the ambition to get 1-3 articles published in scientific journals.In this report we address the challenges and problems but also the possibilities of accounting as a phenomena in being a part of sustainable development in society. We describe the present practice of sustainability accounting, with a focus on external reporting, and its lack of ability to reflect sustainability or non-sustainability. We also problematize around the ability of sustainability accounting to reflect a more ethical accountability/responsibility and to identify problems in financial, environmental and social aspects.The purpose of the report is, facing accounting practice of today, to identify challenges and possibilities in the development of a more relevant accounting that reflects material activities, ambitions and results of an organization in the three dimensions of sustainable development. An overall purpose is to identify a possible direction of accounting to become an important actor in striving for a more sustainable society.The report focuses on the defaults of present sustainability accounting practice in reflecting the result of an organization´s sustainability actions and the lack of connection between the sustainability accounting and the organization´s strategies. Another obstacle for accounting to become an important actor for sustainability is the lack of connection to the definition of sustainable development. The framework of financial accounting in public companies and, in many aspects, a de-coupled sustainability accounting without obvious relevance for making decisions, internally and externally, could be a barrier in the development of accounting for sustainable development. For accounting to become an important part in this development a more pluralistic approach and a more ethical oriented accounting is suggested to reflect a wider/broadened accountability.
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| 4. |
- Persson, Nils-Krister, et al.
(author)
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Re: en ny samhällssektor spirar
- 2016
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Reports (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Resurser och hållbarhet är nära förknippade. Hållbarhet innebär att hushålla med resurser - materiella, miljömässiga och mänskliga. Och hushållning är per definition kärnan i ekonomi. Man börjar alltmer se framväxten av en hel arsenal av verktyg och förhållnings- och angreppssätt för att bygga hållbarhet. Detta förenas av ett synsätt att det som hitintills setts om avfall och värdelöst, och rent utav besvärligt att ta hand om, nu blir en värdefull resurs. Det glömda och gömda kommer åter. Faktum är att många ord och begrepp kring detta börjar på just åter- eller re- . Internationellt talar man om Redesign, Recycling, Remake, Recycle, Recraft, Reuse, Recreate, Reclaim, Reduce, Repair, Refashion.Vad är då allt detta? Ja, vill man dra det långt, är det inte mindre än framväxten av ett nyvunnet sätt att tänka, ja av en ny samhällssektor, en bransch och en industri, sammanbundet av filosofin att återanvändningen, spillminskningen, vidarebruket, efterlivet anses som viktiga faktorer för ett miljömedvetet samhälle. Re: blir paraplytermen för detta. I denna antologi av forskare från skilda discipliner vid Högskolan i Borås lyfts ett antal av dessa begrepp inom Re: fram.
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