Critical Perspectives on Accounting (2001) 0, 128

doi:10.1006/cpac.2001.0479
Available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

CRITICAL ACCOUNTING INTERVENTIONS

D EAN N EU *, DAVID J. C OOPER AND J EFF E VERETT *
*University of Calgary, Accounting Area, Faculty of Management, 2500
University Drive, NW, Calgary, Canada T2N 1N4 and University of Alberta

Starting from prior research on the functioning of intellectuals, the current study
examines two questions: first, how can we intervene in social struggles in a
manner that takes advantage of our expertise and offers the greatest potential
for transforming and improving social practices? and second, how do we, as
intellectuals, judge the effectiveness or success of an intervention, given that the
means used to effect change could well have a bearing on our legitimacy, on the
very definition of intellectual, and on our long-term efficiency. Using two case
studies, we analyze the functioning of accounting within public policy struggles,
and theoretically interrogate the interventions and the resultant outcomes. Although
we acknowledge that the specific terrain of struggle varies, insights from these
two episodes extend our understandings of accountings role within social conflict
and perhaps, more importantly, encourage critical accountants to reintegrate the
theoretical and praxis components of accounting scholarship through interventions
in the public sphere.
c 2001 Academic Press

Critical Accounting Interventions

As Marx noted long ago, the role of philosophy is not to describe the world but to change
it. And the aspirations of critical accountants should be no less (Neimark, 1990, p. 110).

Within critical accounting scholarship, there is a widespread recognition of the

distributive and hegemonic effects of accounting (Cooper & Sherer, 1984). For
example, accounting techniques, numbers and discourses support and assist in
the appropriation of surplus value in core and peripheral countries (Tinker, 1980).
Accounting is distributive in that it reflects and perpetuates unequal social relations
by appraising the terms of exchange between social constituencies (and by)
arbitrating, evaluating and adjudicating social choices (Tinker, 1985, p. 81). It is also
ideological in that it aids in the construction of dominant class hegemony (Cooper,
1980, p. 164) by homogenizing, naturalizing and universalizing social practices in a
manner that masks the underlying unequal social relations.
Address for correspondence: Dean Neu, University of Calgary, Accounting Area, Faculty of
Management, 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, Canada T2N 1N4. E-mail: DNEU@acs.ucalgary.ca
Received 15 July 1998; revised 8 January 2001; accepted 1 March 2001

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c 2001 Academic Press

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D. Neu et al.

Recognition of the distributive and hegemonic effects of accounting has encouraged accounting scholars to examine and elucidate the partisan functioning of accounting within social conflicts. As the editorial in the inaugural Critical Perspectives
on Accounting encouraged, this scholarship has been critical without assuming the
disingenuous pretensions of positivism, has trespassed beyond the comfortable
assumptions of market competition; and has confronted the intractable problems
of conflict and power; class, race and gender; state and market; culture and global
economy, etc (Editors, 1990). In doing so, this scholarship has provided critical accountants with a preliminary language with which to speak intelligently about the
current concerns of our societies (p. 2).
While critical accounting scholars have illuminated the partisan functioning of
accounting, we have been less successful in transforming accounting (and social)
practices (Editors, 1990, p. 1). Rather, with exceptions, we might be accused
of slipping into the same sort of endless descriptive games and exercises that
Neimark (1990, p. 110) suggests characterize other research programmes (see also
Moore, 1990). Indeed the cynical might argue that we have emphasized third-party
theorizing instead of direct praxis, focusing on academic scholarship in learned
journals where the only contact with the real world is mediated through the screen
of the reviewers.
Undoubtedly this is a caricature of critical accounting scholarship in that most
of us use our expertise to intervene in a myriad of waysfrom teaching, to
letters-to-the-editor, involvement in politics, commentaries in the media, to other
forms of community service (see for example, Gallhofer et al., 1999; Arnold &
Cooper, 1999). Wintin North America, Abraham Briloff is perhaps the best known of
such accountants, famous for his exposures of the corporate abuses of accounting
techniques (Briloff, 1990, 1993). In the United Kingdom, a variety of researchers
have intervened in industrial relations arenas (cf. Bryer & Bignall 1997), social
audits and political sites (Willmott et al., 1993; Sikka et al., 1995). These individuals
and others (e.g. Gray, 1992; Bebbington, 1997; Gray et al., 1997; Owen et al.,
1997) have attempted, through direct action and polemics, to shift the balance
of relations of force into a new disposition; and thereby to begin to constitute a new
result (Hall, 1988, p. 132). Yet questions remain. First, how can we intervene in
social struggles in a manner that takes advantage of our expertise and offers the
greatest potential for transforming and improving social practices? Second, how do
we, as intellectuals1 , judge the effectiveness or success of an intervention, given
that the means used to effect change could well have a bearing on our legitimacy,
on the very definition of intellectual, and on our long-term efficiency.
Starting from Bourdieus (1989, 2000) analysis of the functioning of intellectuals
along with the insights of Gramsci (1971), Foucault (1984), Hall (1988), Said (1996)
and others, the current study attempts to answer these questions by recounting
and theorizing two episodes in which accounting numbers and arguments were
used to intervene in public policy debates. These two episodes involve the coal
board interventions in the UK (Berry et al., 1985; Cooper & Hopper, 1988)
and debates about provincial debt and deficit in Canada (Cooper & Neu, 1995;
McMillan & Warrack 1995; Taft, 1997). Specifically, the current study uses these
interventions to increase our understanding of the functioning of accounting within

Accounting interventions

such public policy struggles, and to theoretically interrogate the interventions

and the resultant outcomes. Given our personal involvement, these studies are
chosen for obvious reasons of detailed knowledge (despite the risks of selfaggrandisement). We trust this interrogation is seen as an opportunity to draw upon
the direct and personal knowledge involved in these episodes, and to learn from our
own shortcomings.
The two episodes considered are temporally and geographically specific. They
concern what Hall (1988, p. 43) refers to as the conjuncturalthat is the immediate
terrain of struggle. However, while the role and functioning of accounting within
these episodes is undoubtedly context-specific, such struggles are commonplace
in that the industrialized world continues to experience a series of crises
characterized by intense debate over the roles of the individual, state and
marketplace (cf. Hall, 1988; Ross, 1990; Laxer & Harrison 1995), especially with
the rightward shift in politics during the 1980s and 1990s in countries such as the
United Kingdom, United States, France, Sweden and Canada. Thus although the
specific terrain of struggle varies, insights from these two episodes can extend
our understandings of accountings role within social conflict and perhaps, more
importantly, encourage critical accountants to reintegrate the theoretical and praxis
components of accounting scholarship through interventions in the public sphere.

Images of intellectuals
In thinking about the role of intellectuals, critical accountants are presented with
a variety of conceptual models. There is the image of Marx sitting in the British
Museum writing both his theoretical and popular writing in the attempt to influence
popular opinion and to live his dictum that the role of philosophy is not only to
describe the world but to change it (cf. Marx, 1959, p. 474). Or the image of Gramsci
writing from an Italian prison in Mussolinis time that organic intellectuals direct
the ideas and aspirations of the class to which they organically belong (Hoare &
Smith, 1971, p. 1) and that active participation by such individuals is the hallmark
of an organic intellectual (Gramsci, 1971; Sassoon, 1980, p. 141)2 . More recently,
we have images of intellectuals such as Baudrillard, Chomsky, Foucault and Said
who have become cultural icons, courted by the media for both their analysis and
their ability to deliver provocative sound bites to television audiences (cf. Rabinow,
1984, p. 3; Gill, 1990; Baudrillard, 1995).
Foucaults comments on the role of the intellectual are one example of this shifting
image of the intellectual. He talks about the specific intellectual who is one who
uses specialized expertise and knowledge to engage in specific, localized sites of
struggle. Situated in a particular time and space, the specific intellectual utilizes
his (sic) knowledge, his competence, and his relation to truth in the field of political
struggles (1984, p. 70). As a consequence of their class position, conditions of
work, and relation to the apparatuses of truth in society, specific intellectuals have
the ability to intervene in ways that have both local and general significance (p 73).
This specific intellectual stands in contrast to the universal intellectual, who acts
as the spokesperson of the universal and who speaks about universal truth and

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justice (1984, p. 67). The time of this latter intellectual, Foucault suggests, has
passed (ibid.).
Foucaults writings and public persona were mostly consistent with this image
of the specific intellectual. For example, his specific knowledge in the area of
prisons encouraged his participation in penal reform movements, as did his
interests in the area of sexuality, which encouraged his participation in debates
over sexuality (cf. 1996, pp. 382390). His activities demonstrated how the role
of the specific intellectual can help to detach the power of truth from the forms of
hegemony. . . within which it operates at the present time (Foucault, 1984, p. 75).
Foucaults comments regarding the decline of the universal intellectual and the
role of intellectuals within the public sphere are provocative. They draw our attention
to the manner in which academic expertises function within broader regimes of
power (cf. Foucault, 1996, p. 149). They also illustrate how academics can function
as cultural producers in the broader social sphere while, at the same time, raising
questions regarding the basis from which academics can speak. Yet, there are
tensions within this vision. First, as Bourdieu suggests, it is too easy for the
intellectual acting as full-time cultural producer to become the politician, jeopardizing
his or her autonomy and social legitimacy, or symbolic capital, in the process (1989).
Second, how do intellectuals intervene with specialized, local knowledge, yet ensure
that the products of their labours are made available to, and remain relevant for,
a general or global audience? In the next section we explore these important
critical accounting intervention issues and use Homers Odyssey (Rieu, 1946) as
a metaphor to better understand some of the Rocks of Peril that the intellectual
encounters on her or his journey across the Wine-Dark Seas of intervention3 .
Critical accounting odysseys
Circe warns that the first hazard on this journey will come from the Sirens Isle,
from which emanate sounds so pleasing that all who approach cannot fail but to
have a spell cast upon them. The liquid songs of the twin Sirens in the case of
an accounting intervention come in the form of discourses of pragmatism (Prasad &
Elmes, 1999), appeals to the commonsense, and calls to be practical (Solomons,
1991). The flowery meadow of the Sirens is littered with the skeletons of those
who fail to ignore the Sirens tendency to label alternatives in terms of ideological
affiliations (e.g. deep ecological, radical feminist, Marxist inspired) and their
tendency to shield themselves from serious critique by reverting to the use of
empathy-garnering self-representations (e.g. we are credible, honest, morally
outraged, practical, modern, effective, etc.). Yet there are other tendencies,
including the Sirens propensity to naturalize dichotomies (e.g. the right-wing
versus the radicals) and to attempt to establish themselves as the voices of
reason, of balance, and as speaking for rationality (ibid.).
If one can avoid the music of the Sirens, the next hazard on the journey will be
the two Rocks of Peril, home to Scylla and Charybdis. The Scylla in this case is
the individuality and isolation characteristic of Foucaults specific intellectual, an
individuality bred by a rejection of (Sartres) old-style intellectual prophesying and
tendency to feel the right and the duty to take a stand on all the problems of the time

Accounting interventions

(Bourdieu, 1989, p. 108). The problem with specific intellectuals, those committed
to individual and isolated action, is that they tend to be unorganized with the result
that their ideas can end up uncirculated and unmobilized or, worse, written off as
having been designed to serve a particular individual and interest, one who is seen
as only having an axe to grind.
Circe warns Odysseus of a hazard even worse than that of Scylla, and that is
Charybdis. The Charybdis in this case is the commoditythe bearer of alienated
social relations of capitalism (Tinker, 2000, p. 16)or better stated, the commodity
relationa process of expansion which subjugates citizens in order to prioritize
efficiency and competition (ibid.). the commodity relation has an allure and beauty,
like the great fig-tree of luxuriant foliage above Charybdis, but it also has a less
attractive side, a dark sucking hole that expands and contracts without warning.
Within that continuously changing hole is the discipline of the market process: the
need to respond to price competition, pressure to constantly innovate (if only for
the sake of innovation), and the need to provide surplus value, or a contribution
to profitability (Tinker, 2000). Within that hole the intellectual can be, to paraphrase
Marx & Engels, converted into a paid wage labourer (ibid.). Indeed the commodity
relation has proved itself capable of expanding into many a new realm, including
that of intellectual production, where one witnesses new forms of patronage and
new alliances (Bourdieu, 1989, p. 105). These, like the Sirens song, lure academics
susceptible to mundane temptations, appearances, and the all-devouring ignorance
of the cultural merchants translating as market demand (Bauman 1992 cited in
Karabel, 1996, p. 225).
Yet there is one other hazard to be met on the Odyssey. This is the mistaken
belief that the captain of the ship is either immortal or, more likely, that he or she
has the same social standing, the same capital, as the crew. This is the problem
of the misrecognition of the intellectuals social position, the false belief that he
or she might actually be independent and objective, or, in contrast, organic or
perhaps even one of the oppressed. In the industrialized (i.e. OECD) nations of the
world, the intellectual is seldom if ever capable of being one of the proletariats
fellow travellers, for he or she is always in possession of one of the major means
of domination, cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1989, p. 109). This is not to say that
intellectuals are never dominated, they often are, but they are almost always located
within the field of the dominant class (ibid., 1990, p. 145)4 . It is for this reason that
the most intellectuals can do is to put their power at the service of the dominated,
for they will never fully understand the others game (since each group occupies a
different social location), or even the others investment in that game (since each
group possesses different social resources).
The corporatism of universal intellectuals
To make the critical accounting Odyssey successful, to safely negotiate the Sirens
Isle and the Rocks of Peril, it may be necessary to aim straight across the WineDark Seas towards the island of Thrinacie, where the Nymphs play and the SunGold Hyperion pastures large herds of sturdy sheep and fatted cattle. For Bourdieu
(1989), this destination is reached by aspiring toward a corporatism of universal

D. Neu et al.

intellectuals. This corporatism for the Bourdieu implies a collective of cultural goods
producers, one whose first objective must always be to work in defence of their own
interests and towards the means necessary for the protection of their autonomy
(p. 103). Academics are cultural producers who everywhere and always depend
on certain economic and social conditions for their autonomy. They are in no way
exempt from the laws of the social world.
Autonomy is never guaranteed and can be threatened by the state (as much out
of excessive concern as out of hostility), the world of finance (through tied research
funding), and, most seriously perhaps, the media (whose criteria of production are
based not on reason as much as on readability, topicality, and ones ability to
look or sound good). Protection from these threats means establishing a defence
over the means of production, distribution and evaluation of these goods, and always
being on the lookout for misquotations, misrepresentations, and discrimination
(political and otherwise). It also requires a constant vigilance in order to spot those
who always manage to find a way to compensate for their weakness by appealing
to outside [esp. economic] powers (p. 104). So important is this protection of
autonomy, of the intellectuals interests and the intellectuals particular vision of
the world, that one might even say that for a critical accounting intervention to be
deemed successful it must in some way be one that is affiliated with a collective,
that is, a group whose members both understand and support the need for, and
work toward, such autonomy (cf. Mitchell et al., forthcoming)5 .
Bourdieus universal intellectual is universal in the sense that she or he
upholds, as the highest standard rational, measured dialogue and sound argument,
reasoning, and demonstration (p. 104). This is not to suggest a lapse into pure
ideals and disembodied knowledge (Larson 1971 in Tinker, 2000) whereby the
historical attachment of intellectuals to various historical class formation is ignored.
Rather it suggests that one should soften some beeswax and plug ones ears
to avoid the Sirens calls to be practical since the notion of practical is, itself,
historically-specific and interest-laden.
Sound argument, reasoning, and demonstration are important invariables for
the intellectual, yet they are only a few of the invariables that the universal
intellectual is and ought to be concerned with. There is too the universal interest in
disinterestedness, the intellectuals universal concern with values of neutrality and
devotion to the public good, concerns which themselves act as the intellectuals
(including Foucaults) most important source of cultural and symbolic capital
(Bourdieu, 2000, p. 125). There are also the universal ideas of domination and
interests, and how these come to universally play a role in social relationships of
regulated debate and make, what Habermas refers to, as ideal speech always
somewhat less than ideal. Moreover, there is the universal found powerfully at
work after the formulation and articulation of a universal are complete: as soon as
principles claiming universal validity (those of democracy, for example) are stated
and officially professed, there is no longer any social situation in which they cannot
serve at least as symbolic weapons in struggles of interest or as instruments of
critique for those who have a self-interest in truth and virtue (p. 127).
The preceding implies that the universal intellectual, as a functionary of humanity
(Bourdieu, 2000, p. 110), must see it as the ultimate form of rhetorical bad

Accounting interventions

faith to invoke commonsense against academic constructions which challenge

commonsense. Such invocations, for example, to patriotism and nationalism or
other traditional values of the collectivity, need to be transgressed if the will to
emancipation is not to run up against truth and reason, where these have been
seen as absolute6 . It is thus imperative that the defenders of the universal, the
universal intellectuals, maintain a radical doubt toward both the pragmatic and
the commonsense and must endeavour to produce not for the consumers of
the intellectuals cultural goods (who demand the practical) but for its producers
(who demand the truth)7 . One can then suggest here the bases for an additional
criterion for the evaluation of a critical accounting intervention: the intervention is
successful insofar as it is rooted in reason, challenges commonsense, and is
produced for producers. There are all criteria of substance.
One of the most obvious criteria by which one might actually judge the degree to
which a critical accounting intervention is successful is its effect, the degree to which
the intervention accomplishes the desired change. But, given Bourdieus politics of
the universal, his highlighting of the social determinations (Dezalay 1995) which
affect intellectuals, and the intellectuals need to defend her or his autonomy and
search for universals, the effect cannot be the only criterion. If it were, the critical
accounting scholar would be free to effect change through the use of pragmatic
appeals or appeals to the commonsense, which might well entail simply invoking
not sound argument and demonstration, but patriotism, nationalism, or references
to ahistorical, sacred values. With only a concern for the ends, any means would
be justifiedthus we need to consider both the means (substance and affiliation)
and the ends (effect) of an intervention.
The analysis that follows examines two separate examples of accounting
interventions, two travails amongst Wine-Dark Seas and the Rocks of Peril. We
interrogate these episodes in an attempt to answer the question initially posed:
how can we intervene in social struggles in a manner that takes advantage of
our expertise and offers the greatest potential for transforming and improving
social practices? We try to adopt a position of self-reflexivity (Bourdieu &
Wacquant, 1992), wherein we ask given the means/ends criteria above, were our
interventions successful?, while at the same time trying to avoid narcissism and
self-aggrandizement.

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The episodes
The coal board strike
Petrol bombs were used against a police station and police vehicles for the first time
in South Yorkshire, barricades burned through the early hours in many villages and
shops were looted against a backdrop of the by now familiar confrontations between
police, clad in riot equipment, and pickets hurling a barrage of stones and bottles
(Davenport, November 13, 1984, p. 1).

For over a year, the labour conflict between the 189 000 member National Union
of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Coal Board (NCB) was front and centre
in the United Kingdom media and in the minds of the people. Daily radio and
television coverage of Coal Board and Union positions, picket like violence by
police and striking miners, along with the hardship of mining families and mining

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communities, interspersed with commentary from expert knowers, framed the

publics consciousness of the strike. From the time the strike began in March 1984
until it ended the following March, government and union leaders sought to swing
public opinion to their interpretation of events through press releases, interviews
and moral suasion with media spokespeople (Adeney & Lloyd, 1986, pp. 244245).
Ostensibly the strike was a conflict over the governments proposed reduction of
coal mining output by 4M tons per year and the resultant closure of uneconomic
pits. However, the strike brought into sharp relief two divergent views of the future
and the polarization of society regarding these visionsthe Thatcher governments
visions of privatization, rationalization and individualism versus Arthur Scargills
and the NUMs vision of collectivism and their insistence that the state had
responsibilities to communities (Adeney & Lloyd, 1986, p. 24).
Throughout, the UK government sought to emphasize the costs to the taxpayer of
an inefficient mining industry and the need to close uneconomic pits (cf. Wilsher et
al., 1985, pp. 4045). Their argument implied that unprofitable in accounting terms
was equivalent to uneconomic, and that accounting reports provided a rationale for
pit closures. This argument was largely unchallenged until some six months after the
strike began, when an economics professor and a group of accounting professors
independently of each other publicly contested government claims regarding the
economic viability of the pits slated for closure (see Cooper & Hopper, 1988, for the
full text). It is at this point that we later pick up the story.
Debt and deficit debates
Ill back Ralph (Klein) any day. Im pretty impressed with what hes doing so far. Youve got
to get rid of the deficit, or else other services like social services will go down the drain
because of abuse. I dont mind user fees because theres too much abuse of services
(McNichol, February 25, 1994, p. B1).

The ideological shift that occurred in the United Kingdom with Thatcherism, and
in the United States with Reaganism, surfaced in Alberta, Canada in 1993 with the
election of Ralph Klein as provincial premier. The Klein revolution (Lisac, 1995)
sought to remake the economic and social landscape in much the same ways that
Thatcherism and Reaganism did for their jurisdictions. Getting the government out
of the business of being in business was the mantra of the Klein Revolution
and privatization, contracting out, and deregulation were the methods adopted to
achieve this vision. Central to the governments restructuring efforts was a plan to
cut government expenditures by 20% over 3 years, or approximately $3B per year.
And like the restructuring efforts of many American states, expenditure constraint
focussed on social assistance recipients, the poor and other marginalized members
of society (Davis, 1993, p. 24).
In selling the necessity of fiscal restraint, the rhetoric of debt and deficits
figured prominently. In both the periods prior and subsequent to the governments
announcement of massive expenditure cuts, the media was saturated with stories
of the debt and deficit crisis facing Alberta. We have a spending problem not a
revenue problem, interest on the debt is bankrupting us and spending on social
services and healthcare is out-of-control were some of the more popular themes

Accounting interventions

invoked by government ministers and supporters to justify Albertas need to get its
fiscal house in order.
Challenges to the governments construction of a debt/deficit crisis did not occur
until almost a year after the massive spending cuts were announced and began to
be implemented. At this time, several groups of accountants and economists began
to publicly challenge the governments claims regarding not only the origins, causes
and potential solutions to the crisis, but also whether infact a crisis existed.
The deployment of accounting numbers
Setting the financial frame. Prior to the introduction of any concrete policy proposals,
significant preparatory ideological work is necessary (Hall, 1988). This preparatory
work often involves not only enlisting a cadre of organic intellectuals to fight the
battle of ideas (Sim, 2000, p. 321) but also positioning these institutions and
intellectuals as possessing the appropriate type of cultural capital (Bourdieu 1986).
In the cases under consideration, this involved the enlistment of ideologicallyaffiliated individuals and institutions along with their positioning as financial
experts.
In the Alberta context, some of this ideological work was accomplished by the
CA profession. The ICAA functioned as a hegemonic apparatus (Sassoon, 1980,
p. 123) helping to construct a discursive environment favourable to government
plans through their early and vocal participation in Alberta debt and deficit debates.
Annually, between 1992 and 1994, the ICAA prepared and submitted position
papers to the provincial treasurer. These position papers, entitled Facing Fiscal
Facts I & II and Staying the Fiscal Course, encouraged the provincial government
to face fiscal facts of a large debt and deficit and the associated need to eliminate
them, preferably through government expenditure reductions (ICAA, 1992, p. 1).
The ICAA was also publicly supportive of government restructuring activities as
evidenced by the frequency with which Treasurer Dinning was invited to act as a
keynote speaker at Institute functions on performance measurement, accounting in
the public sector, etc. Through these activities, the ICAA appeared to help construct
and maintain the moment of hegemony and of consent (Gramsci 1971, p. 1235
quoted in Sassoon, 1980, p. 122) regarding debts and deficit.
Accounting bodies are not the only groups which are able to perform some of
this preparatory financial work, however (cf. Taylor, 2001). Sims comments that
in the United Kingdom from the mid-1970s onward, the Centre for Policy Studies
coordinated some of this background ideological work (2000, p. 321). And in the
case of the coal dispute, the statements and output of the Policy Studies Institute
early on sought to encourage spontaneous consent (cf. Gramsci, 1971, p. 12).
In conjunction with Royal Institute of International Affairs, they released a report
suggesting that:
The Government should re-examine the possibility of importing increasing amounts of coal
during the rest of this century, according to a study published today. It concludes that by
the year 2000 up to 30 million tonnes of coal per annum could be imported more cheaply
than the domestic product (Chapman, May 14, 1985, p. 2).

The study continues on and states that:

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10

D. Neu et al.
The British coal industry is a relatively high cost producer and that, contrary to claims by
Mr Anthony Scargill, Britain does not produce the cheapest deep-mined coal in the world
(Chapman, May 14, 1985, p. 2).

The release of this report came approximately 1 month after the publicly-reported
disagreement between NCB chair MacGregor and NUM president Scargill over the
cost competitiveness of UK coal. This reports conclusions echoed and harmonized
with the previous assertions made by NCB chair MacGregor.
In the Alberta context, Canada West, a business-sponsored think-tank, was
quite active in warning the public about the perils of debt and deficits through
a series of public pamphlets and other public relations activities both prior to
and subsequent to the announced government restructuring initiatives. As a
consequence of these activities, Canada West played a significant role in providing
the intellectual justification for the Alberta governments expenditure reduction plans
and in constructing deficit reduction as the commonsense response to the fiscal
crisis of the state (Kachur, 1994, pp. 274278).
Together, the work of these institutions helped to set the discursive frame for
the subsequent policy initiatives. The calls for fiscal reform promulgated by these
institutions not only prepared the ground for the government policy initiatives but
also lent legitimacy to the policy initiatives since governments spokes people could
point to the fact that external experts were calling for similar, if not more radical,
reforms. Furthermore, both by virtue of their early commentaries on the issues and
by the resonance of their position with the government position, these institutions
were granted the necessary symbolic capital to discipline subsequent interveners.
We return to this issue in later sections.
Supportive accounting numbers appeared early in both episodes.
For example, these numbers rationalized the NCBs position regarding the necessity
of pit closures; they also defended the need for expenditure reductions in Alberta.
For example, NCB chairman Ian MacGregor emphasized the costly nature of United
Kingdom coal during the early days of the strike:

Simple numbers.

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On average, [UK coal] cost about 46 a tonne at the pitheadcompared with between 16
and 19 a tonne for Australian coal of comparable quality and 23 and 27 a tonne for coal
from the Appalachians (quoted in Chapman, April 11, 1984, p. 2, emphasis added).

These initial reports also focused on the loss figures associated with the
Cortonwood collierythe site whose proposed closure prompted 55 000 Yorkshire
miners to strike, in turn leading to the nationwide dispute:
It was expensive to extract, and could not be sold at the high price it warranted. More
than 110,000 tonnes was already stacked in the Cortonwood yard. Between 198081 and
198384 Cortonwood will have lost 10.75 million (Wintour, March 22, 1984, p. 2)

In the case of the Alberta government, it was the growing deficit and debt
that signalled the need for government expenditure reductions. Headlines such as
Provinces debt worse than feared (Calgary Herald, September 9, 1993, p. A1),
Treasurer reveals debt of $29b (Calgary Herald, September 9, 1993, p. A11),
The deficit: a huge portion of our annual spending is interest payments on loans
(Calgary Herald, October 16, 1993, p. A5), and Provincial debt a worry to bond

Accounting interventions

11

raters (Calgary Herald, December 7, 1993, p. D3) were commonplace during this
time period.
In both instances, accounting numbers were deployed to justify and rationalize the
governments course of action much in the manner of a rationalization/ammunition
machine (Burchell et al., 1980). However, the translation of the results of complex
accounting calculations into a single, simple number had more subtle ideological
effects (Eagleton, 1991, p. 194). This translation implied that the interpretive
pairing between the accounting signifier and the underlying economic reality was
unproblematicthat accounting numbers directly and unproblematically mapped
the underlying economic reality (cf. Solomons, 1991; Tinker, 1991). It also effaced
the assumptions and complex of calculations that were necessary to arrive at
the bottom-line number. As the quote regarding the cost per ton of coal hints
at, a single, simple number is an average across a variety of colliery sites and
types/grades of coal using perhaps different accounting assumptions; what remains
the unquestioned is whether this single number can signify an underlying economic
reality since averaging of costs across coal types and pits might really be
attempting to average apples and oranges.
Commensense numbers
The use of simple accounting numbers to legitimize a particular interpretation of
events and to foreclose competing interpretations was complemented by appeals
to the commonsense of these numbers. For example, Prime Minister Thatcher
in responding to the attempts of accounting academics to problematize the use of
accounting in identifying uneconomic pits responded:
If you regard the whole matter of coal as merely accounting and think it can all be done
with mirrors, then you will be quite happy if we eliminate the 1.3 million subsidy a year.
That is not a matter of accounting. That is a matter of fact (quoted in Berry et al., 1986).

This response attempted to reassert the facticity of, if not the accounting numbers,
at least an underlying reality where a significant portion of United Kingdom collieries
were deemed to be uneconomic.
In terms of the Alberta government, references to a households budget as being
equivalent to government deficit and debt numbers played on the commonsensical
nature of accounting numbers:
The Premier used computer graphics of loonies (Canadian dollar coins) and credit-card
bills to illustrate the amount of money the province overspends each year. Could you
imagine a family that spends more than it earns year after year?: . . . Before long, this
family has run up their credit cards to the maximum just to pay for their extra spending. If
they cant stop themselves, someone else will and eventually they just wont be able to get
credit (Klein quoted in Feschuk, January 18, 1994b, p. A1).

The implication of this household analogy was that public accounts data are
no different, and certainly more complex, than household budgeting where one
receives a fixed income and must live within that income. It ignores, for example,
the power of governments to tax its citizens.
These attempts to ground accounting numbers in the commonsense of the times
appears to simultaneously reinforce both the accounting numbers themselves and

12

D. Neu et al.

the rhetorical position the numbers are deployed to justify. Accounting numbers
echo, enlist, harmonize and draw sustenance (Lehman & Tinker, 1987) from the
broader discursive environment, particularly the emphasis on populism prevalent
during these two events. As Hall (1988, p. 56) comments:
The success of Thatcherism did not lie in its capacity to dupe unsuspecting folk but in the
way it addresses real problems, real and lived experiences, real contradictionsyet is able
to represent them within a logic of discourse which pulls them systematically in line with
the policies and class strategies of the right.

The deployment of accounting numbers and their grounding in references to their

self-evidence and similarity to individual household experiences was in keeping
with the commonsense of the times. But, in turn, these numbers reinforced this
commonsense by creating an ideological circle of interpretation which foreclosed
competing interpretations of what the provided accounting numbers could be said
to represent (Smith, 1990; Neu & Taylor, 1996, p. 16). Stated differently, an
emphasis on commonsense encouraged the use of simple numbers to represent
a complex economic reality which, in turn, not only reinforced the appropriateness
of using commonsense to guide government policy but also foreclosed the need
to examine other accounting numbers and interpretations. The financial metaphors
being used in Alberta at this time such as being overdrawn at the bank and having
over-mortgaged ones assets resonates with Halls (1988, p. 46) comment that
through such discursive techniques Thatcherism discovered a powerful means of
translating economic doctrine into the language of experience, moral imperative and
commonsense.
Repetition
In both episodes, the commonsense of the numbers was reinforced and reproduced
through repetition. The NCB, for example, repeatedly ran a series of newspaper ads
providing the miners, and the public, with the real facts and real numbers:
A mere 12 percent of our capacity is now directly costing more than 275 million a year to
support. This is money that should be going into modernising our other pits (NCB, July 5,
1984, p. 5).

And:
Heavy investment means that we are building 42 million tones of new capacity. Coal that
can be produced at costs low enough to find customers. How can we operate this new
capacity when we still have pits working in which coal is being produced at around 90 a
tonne? (NCB, July 6, 1984, p. 5).

The advertisements continually emphasized these basic financial facts while

ignoring the 300% variance in the price of different types of coal.
Likewise, the commonsense of the Alberta governments numbers and their
planned course of action was reinforced through a series of yearly fireside chats
by the Premier. In these chats, Premier Klein used simple language and numbers to
reinforce the wisdom of the governments planned and on-going expenditure cuts:
The half-hour program, which was recorded Friday, allowed Mr Klein to do what he does
bestcommunicate directly to the people. Although he wore a suit, his speech was casual
and he addressed his audience as folks (Feschuk, January 18, 1994b, p. A1).

Accounting interventions

13

And:
In a taped half-hour address on television channels throughout the province, the Premier
asked residents to call an 800 number with ideas of how to reinvest in Albertans now that
the provinces budget deficit has been eliminated. The most exciting thing about change
is the benefits that flow to the people who have weathered the storm together, Mr Klein
said as a huge smile crossed his face. I see an even stronger Alberta aheadmen and
women full of deep pride and confidence (Feschuk, January 18, 1995, p. A4).

The folksy presentations constructed Premier Klein as one of the people, who was
only doing what any ordinary Albertan would do in the circumstances (Stewart,
1995, p. 33).
In both of these episodes, repetition played a central role in the construction of a
hegemonic vision. Repetition of the NCB ads and other government messages in
the popular press (cf. Adeney & Lloyd, 1986, pp. 244245) served to reinforce the
governments point-of-view. In Alberta, these sheer number of news stories dealing
with the debt and deficit in the period preceding and subsequent to the governments
announcement of restructuringcompared to previous periodshad the effect of
constructing a sense of urgency around government action. McQuaig (1995, p. 33)
suggests that such repetition effectively creates a clatter in peoples heads that
frames future discussions of the issues at hand:
The clatter in peoples heads . . . describes the way the media bombard us with
a message until eventually, through sheer repetitionlike the monotonous, incessant
banging of platesit lodges in our heads, becoming a dull background noise, a kind of
invisible yet inescapable fact of life. Anything else then comes to sound like a curious,
off-key whine.

(Winter, 1992, pp. 167206) comes to a similar conclusion, suggesting that

repetition reinforces the commonsense of a particular position through not only
the increased visibility that the position receives but also through the increased
opportunities to echo, harmonize and enlist other discourses to ones position.
Audiences
The strategies of using simple accounting numbers to rationalize the governments
position, the grounding of these numbers in notions of commonsense and other
popular discourses, and the use of repetition to foreclose other interpretations
appears to be predicted on certain assumptions about audiences, in particular
assumptions about accounting literacy and audience attention span. For example,
the emphasis on bottom-line numbers appeals to notions of a true income
whereby a single accounting number represents a single underlying economic
reality (cf. Solomons, 1991). And while the constant repetition of the preferred
signifier-signified pairing effaces other possible interpretations, such effacement
only seems possible if the audience is predisposed to this type of interpretation.
Stated differently, the rhetorical strategy of emphasizing bottom-line numbers is an
effective one, especially if the audience for these numbers is unaware that the final
number is the result of a series of calculations that have no intrinsic relationship to
a particular underlying economic reality (cf. Tinker, 1991).
Audience attention span also seems salient. Throughout the debt and deficit
episode in particular, the accounting numbers and their method of calculation

14

D. Neu et al.

changed temporally. Initially in the attempt to justify the need for spending
reductions, the government used the gross debt of $32B without distinguishing
between gross debt and net debt. Subsequent to the introduction of spending
reductions, a calculated net debt of $13B was often used. Interestingly, this latter
number included the investment assets held by the province but did not include the
off balance sheet assets such as oil, gas and timber reserves along with provincial
infrastructure (i.e. hospitals, road etc). The selective use of different accounting
numbers and the failure to reconcile the different numbers was in keeping with the
story which the government wished to tell at the different juncturesi.e. we have
a spending problem which needs to addressed versus we have made substantial
progress with our spending problems but more work needs to be done. Such
strategies are premised on the belief that rhetorical arguments at a moment in
time need to only be loosely linked to prior (and future) arguments. Furthermore,
the actual numbers do not matterrather what is important is the ability to use
numbers to buttress ones arguments. Stewart (1995, p. 33) nicely captures this
temporal amnesia of television media:
Television is a minute by minute medium that caters to the present. Viewers cant reread a
newscast. They cant catalogue newspaper clippings and easily compare past and present.
Most newscasts dont have time to present the history of an issue; they only have time for
what happened today. Television is of the moment, just like Ralph Klein, and each moment
is singular; it has no relationship to the moment before or the moment after. Television has
no memory, and induces short memories in viewers.

And while Stewart distinguishes between electronic and print media; these two
episodes suggest that the differences between these two media in encouraging
temporal amnesia seems to be a difference in degree, rather than in kind.
Interventions
Bases for intervention
Both accounting interventions were reactions to prevailing dominant constructions of
events, constructions that had occurred over a period of months and that appeared
to have coalesced around a single interpretation. However, it was expertise within
the specific institutional fields and additional research work which formed the basis
for intervening. In this sense, both sets of interveners possessed the field-specific
knowledge and field-specific cultural capital which Foucault (1984, p. 70) and
Bourdieu (1990, p. 145) note are necessary in order to legitimately intervene.
For example in the coal board case, a team of researchers has been studying the
capital budgeting and management control systems of the NCB for approximately
2 years prior. The researchers had taught at the staff college for the NCB
and had interviewed numerous individuals involved in the operating, financing
and accounting functions. Thus the researchers possessed sufficient background
expertise and knowledge regarding NCB operations. In the debt and deficit debates,
one of the interveners had been part of a research team investigating government
privatization of liquor stores and was thus somewhat familiar with the information
contained in the government public accounts. The other had taught senior civil
servants in the Province about government financial statements. Thus in both cases

Accounting interventions

15

this background knowledge raised questions regarding the dominant constructions

of events presented in the mass media, thereby encouraging the researchers to
delve deeper into the accounting numbers.
Perhaps in tacit recognition that the cultural capital possessed by academics is
premised on detailed knowledge of a specific field and that the rules of academe
require that pronouncements be supported by detailed analysis (Bourdieu, 1990,
p. 61, 146), additional research was undertaken to examine the appropriateness of
the dominant media constructions. The coal board interveners turned to recently
completed and comprehensive monopolies and merger commission report which
contained detailed information on industry cost structures. The researchers were
able to interpret the mass of information in the report. The debt and deficit
interveners returned to the provincial public account data to gather the necessary
information. In both cases, background accounting expertise and knowledge of the
specific fields along with the public archival data provided the bases for constructing
an interpretation contrary to dominant media constructions.
The interventions
After undertaking the additional research necessary to challenge dominant constructions, a decision was made to approach the print media as a way of disseminating the analysis and conclusions. This seemed appropriate given both the medias
pivotal role in the continuous struggle over hegemony (Ang, 1996, p. 136), and its
important role in influencing public affairs and public opinion (Taras, 1999, p. 30).
However as we discuss in subsequent sections, a better understanding of how media filters influence the reporting of accounting information may have encouraged
us to change our tactics slightly8 .
The articles themselves attempted to disrupt commonsense interpretations by
emphasizing the complexity of the issues, the incompleteness of the data, and the
invisible assumptions underlying government calculations. For example, the article
in Accountancy argued that:
Careful scrutiny of NCB accounts produces the conclusion that they fail to form an
adequate basis for informed management decisions, since they are almost bound to
be misleading in any attempts to identify the changes in expected future cash flows
consequent upon pit closures (Berry et al., 1985, p. 10).

The tenor of the article was to call into question the assertions that unprofitable
is synonymous with uneconomic and that historical absorption cost financial
statements tell us anything about the incremental current and future profitability
of individual collieries. Likewise, the Alberta intervention stressed the incomplete
nature of public account data:
We must refuse to be cowed by economic experts and government facts, and to
accept that only contracts with Albertans can be broken. By refusing to be mesmerised
by incomplete contestable, and loaded financial statements, to step beyond the figures,
we can expose the sky is falling ideology of deficits and debt (Cooper & Neu, 1995,
p. 180)

Both interventions challenged prevailing interpretations by making visible the assumptions and calculations underpinning the bottom line numbers, thereby drawing attention to the construction of these numbers. These challenges highlighted

16

D. Neu et al.

that the simple numbers were not that simple. Additionally, both provided alternative interpretations of the current state of affairs, attempting to pluralize the possible
signifier-signified pairing. For example, commentary published by the interveners in
the Calgary Herald asked the following question:
In playing the role of the gunslinger on the economic frontier, Klein has concentrated his
sights on the perceived enemy with only one eye. A deficit, after all, is nothing but the
difference between what the government collects and what it spends. The question thats
been asked ad nauseam is: Are we spending too much? But what about the other side
of the equation: Are we collecting enough? (Cooper & Neu, April 11, 1995, 1995, p. A5).

In retrospect, both interventions emphasized rational, measured dialogue and

sound argument, reasoning, and demonstration (Bourdieu, 1989, p. 104). For
example Berry et al. (1986) comment that their intervention in the coal board
debates:
. . . was an opportunity to show that technical accounting matters were not trivial and that
accounting was not a neutral technical activity. We believed that accounting reports were
being used in a partisan manner and this should be the stuff of public debate (p. 87).

Likewise, the debt and deficit interveners sought to construct themselves as

academics who were interested in expanding public discussion and debate rather
than providing an answer:
Our plea is that we start seriously discussing the extent to which deficits and debt are a
major problem for Alberta (Cooper & Neu, 1995, p. 164).

On this basis, the interventions were successful given the criteria of substance
which we previously discussed.
While this reasonableness preserved the interveners cultural capitali.e. The
Guardian prefaced their comments on the Accountancy study by stating an article
just released by a group of respected accounting academics. . . (November 30,
1984, p. 14)we acknowledge that the resultant interventions did not have the
same scope to echo, harmonize and enlist other popular discourses to the project at
hand. To illustrate, consider the following statement from the Accountancy article:
Therefore, this analysis may not be a definitive representation of expected future costs
and revenues. Indeed, it is subject to numerous assumptions about whether costs at
Cortonwood behave similarly to the average costs in NCB collieries. But it does indicate
the difficulty of informed public debate about pit closures on uneconomic grounds. The
question remains about how uneconomic is defined, from whose perspective and over
what period (Berry et al., 1985, p. 12).

Author:
Aitken 1984 is not
in reference list

This statement undermines the simplicity of bottom-line accounting numbers but

the technical nature of the arguments makes it more difficult to echo and enlist
other popular discoursesdiscourses which themselves are grounded in simple
arguments. Consequently, the interventions come across as dry and grey compared
to government statements which ground the numbers in notions of nationalism (or
provincialism), law and order and proclamations regarding the enemy within (cf.
Thatcher quoted in Aitken, July 20, 1984, p. 1). Yet, as Hall (1988, p. 137) notes, it is
these popular ideologies that constitute a particularly important and strategic terrain
in such strugglessuccessful ideological work requires articulating/disarticulating

Accounting interventions

17

the popular discourses from their previously secured position in an ideological

field (p. 139). Thus, although accounting expertise makes intervention possible,
the technical nature of this expertise appears to simultaneously circumscribe the
potential scope (and effectiveness) of the intervention.
This problem is exacerbated when one considers mass medias penchant for
stories of scandal and simple stories. Since newspapers are in the business of
delivering commodity audiences to advertisers, simple stories are favoured because
they decrease the amount of work that the reader has to do (Smythe, 1977; Meehan,
1993, p. 393). Stories that provide readers with a commonsense interpretation, with
an unproblematic signifier-signified pairing decrease reader effort, making it more
likely that the reader will return on future days, hence contributing to the audiencebuilding strategies of the newspaper. Likewise stories of sex and scandal help to
build audiences (Tumber, 1993, p. 352). These media processes appear to conspire
against techniques such as attempting to problematize simple accounting numbers,
making visible accounting assumptions and providing alternative interpretations
since the delivery of commodity audiences favours simplicity over complexity. While
it might be possible to transcend the narrowness of accounting numbers themselves
by linking them to broader public concerns and interests, the structure of the media
encourages interventions which are produced for the consumers rather than the
producers. We return to this issue in the discussion section.
In sum, the interventions tried to disrupt the facticity and transparency of
accounting numbers by focusing on the incompleteness of the numbers for
decision-making, by exposing the underlying assumptions and calculations, and
by suggesting other possible interpretations of the numbers. This later intervention
also provided some alternative calculations and financial numbers regarding the
financial health of the province and the appropriateness of spending cuts versus tax
increases. However as the next two sections discuss, the provision of alternative
numbers provided a focal point for re-entry of other institutions into the debate.
Expert responses
Initial actions by the ICAEW provided the space for resistance in that the magazine,
Accountancy, is a ICAEW publication9 . It was the editorial staff of the magazine
who, after negotiating a revised version of the manuscript including the provocative
title NCB accountsa mine of mis-information?, released a date-embargoed
version of the study of the press around the end of November 1984 (Berry et al.,
1986, p. 88). However, by the time that the article appeared in January 1985 the
English Institute appeared to have changed its mind. Although they published the
intervention, they also published a counter-opinion article in the same issue entitled
Pitfalls of Academic Accounting by an Institute Council member who was also on
the NCB Board. The ICAEW subsequently decided to set up an inquiry to determine
how an article with political implications could have been published in a professional
journal (Berry et al., 1986, p. 91). As Berry et al. (1986, p. 91) recount, this inquiry
was partly conducted by the NCB board member for finance, he being a member of
the council of the ICAEW.
One of the methods used to neutralize the comments of the interveners was
for the accounting institutes to put forth experts who could be assumed to speak

18

D. Neu et al.

for the profession and the public interest. For example, the counter-opinion piece in
Accountancy is prefaced by: in view of the controversy raised by the preceding
article, we asked Institute Council member Brian Harrison to contribute to the
technical debate (Accountancy, January 1985, p. 13). This introduction frames
Harrison, FCA as an authorized knower and expert on such technical matters.
Winter (1992, p. xvi) remarks that this use of authorized knowers is the mainstay
of objective journalism in that these knowers allow the media to use the words
of others to tell a story that they wish to tell, making them in effect weapons in a
symbolic struggle (Bourdieu, 2000, p. 127). In this case, the Harrison commentary
builds on the expert knower status granted by Accountancy and states:
Despite the discussions which have taken place, major misunderstandings and inaccuracies persist in the preceding paper by five academic authors on some aspects of National
Coal Board accounting methods. It is surprising that, after spending some considerable
time over the past 2 years researching, with our active support, in one of our mining Areas,
the authors have apparently chosen in their article not to understand how the Board makes
fundamental business decisions . . . (1985, p. 12, emphasis added).

This quotation and the remainder of the counter-opinion sets up a dichotomy

between esoteric accounting theory and the grounded, real accounting practices
utilized by the NCB to make business decisions.
The same expert knower dynamic is evident in the Alberta context. The Institute
of Chartered Accountants of Alberta (ICAA) did not respond directly to the article
published in the Calgary Herald, however, the provincial Auditor-General, a former
partner with one of the big-six accounting firms, did write a public response to
the portion of the Calgary Herald article that was reported by Mr Urquahart in
the University of Calgary Gazette. In his letter to the Gazette, the Auditor-General
provides his preferred interpretation of public account data:

Author:
Valentine 1995 is
not in reference
list

In his article, Mr Urquahart says that the 1993/94 deficit was inflated by 30 percent or more
because it included capital spending as a yearly expense. Page 41 of Budget 95 presented
by the Provincial Treasurer shows that the provincial deficit would have been $44 million
greater had capital spending been replaced with annual amortization. I am pleased that
the government intends to use accrual accounting in 1995/96 for its capital assets . . . .
Yours Truly, Peter Valentine, FCA, Auditor General (Valentine, May 1, 1995, p. 2).

Noteworthy is the manner in which the Auditor Generals comments buttress the
accuracy of the governments accounts by providing another accounting facti.e.
$44 million greaterwithout acknowledging that different accounting assumptions
(i.e. the amortization period and the staring date for using accrual-basis accounting)
result in different bottom-line deficit numbers. Like the governments use of
accounting numbers, the intent appears to be to foreclose alternative interpretations
by advocating a single signifier-signified pairing.
The use of authorized experts by both institutes highlights how certain intellectuals
are allowed to speak for not only the accounting profession but also for the public
interest. These individuals, because of the overlapping interests of capital, state and
accountancy professions at these conjectures, are viewed as possessing symbolic
capital which allows them to speak not only for partisan groups but also for the
public interest (cf. Bourdieu 1986). In contrast, interveners were not granted this
privilege even though they possessed the cultural capital of academics and even

Accounting interventions

19

though several of the interveners were members of the ICAEW and the ICAA.
In both cases closure was achieved by distinguishing between academics and
practising accountantsthe implication being that academics were out of touch with
the practice of accounting in the real world. In essence, this strategy of closure
around authorized and legitimated experts seems designed to limit the potential of
intellectual interveners to disrupt dominant hegemonic formations.
Gramsci notes that one of the roles of coordinating agencies is to
enforce discipline on those groups who do not consent either actively or passively
(1971, p. 12). In the Alberta case, the day after the Calgary Herald intervention
appeared, Canada West faxed a two-page letter to the interveners stating:

Discipline.

Upon reading your article in the Calgary Herald entitled Deceptive Deficit, it is evident that
the analysis you present is both simplistic and misguided. . . the title of your article uses the
word deceptive presumably to describe the Klein agenda. Isnt the word deceptive more
accurately used to describe your analysis?

Canada West subsequently persuaded the Calgary Herald to run a full page
counter-opinion article that attempted to discredit the initial commentary.
The response of Canada West, particularly the counter-opinion article, was
ideological in the sense that is attempted to re-establish public closure around
the desirability of government expenditure reductions. However the swiftness and
tone of the private response fulfilled a much different function. Missing in the
private letter was the tone of resonableness that attempts to persuade the public
reader that government expenditure reductions is the commonsense solution to
the governments problems. Instead, this private response seemed to have as its
purpose to warn the interveners that future acts of intervention would be opposed.
Indeed, the subsequent publication by the Calgary Herald of an excerpt from a book
chapter authored by the interveners was followed by a Canada West letter-to-theeditor.
As one of the groups benefiting from decreasing levels of government corporate
taxation, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) was much more
direct in their disciplinary activities. In response to the Calgary Herald intervention,
the president of CAPP wrote directly to the Deans of the interveners Faculties
asking for a peer review of the analysis. Although CAPP did not control the legal
apparatus of the states coercive power (Gramsci, 1971, p. 12), their response
appears to attempt to access this disciplinary power indirectly. Given that the
petroleum industry is the primary industry in Alberta and that the industry provides
significant donations to the two Alberta universities in question, their request for
action on the part of the Deans was non-trivial; it certainly could not be offset by the
numerous countervailing letter which were subsequently sent in to commend the
interveners on their much needed and relevant research.
These responses suggest that these agencies are cognizant of their ideological
and disciplinary roles. They have the financial resources to respond to groups
and individuals that threaten emergent hegemonic settlements (Hall, 1988). They
have access to the media and are often presented by the media as authorized,
independent knowers (cf. Adeney & Lloyd, 1986, p. 244). And as a consequence
of their business connections, they appear to have indirect access to the

20

D. Neu et al.

states coercive power, especially in these times when universities are forced to
increasingly rely on corporate funding (Buchbinder & Newson, 1988; Slaughter,
1990). Perhaps as a consequence of these realities, tentative interventions are
an implicit recognition of the social relations of the University and a method of selfprotection.
In hindsight and with a better understanding of the functioning of the mass media,
we might have expected the responses of both the media and other experts. Limiting
access for non status quo stories is a documented characteristic of main-stream
media (Murdock, 1978; Herman & Chomsky, 1988; Winter, 1992). This form of
filtering was evident in the NCB episode both in terms of the general coverage of
the strike and in the coverage of the accounting intervention. For example, Adeney
and Lloyd (1986, pp. 244245) remark how Energy Minister Walker used his media
connections to shape media constructions:
There are plenty of examples, some trivial, of Walkers influence, and, perhaps more
significant, of editors own concern not to rock the boat. So a story in the Daily Express
about the launch of a new boiler which could switch from fuel to fuel was dropped because
it might suggest concern about coal supplies. On another occasion, after a telephone call,
a paragraph was inserted in a population paper story about talks stressing the NCBs new
determined line. Most famously, an indiscreet remark about privatizing pits from Treasury
Minister, John Moore, was taken out.

Consistent with a filtering effect, our review of both The Guardian and The Times
found that The Times did not provide any coverage of the initial release of Mine of
mis-information article nor of the subsequent debate in the House of Commons. In
contrast to the government-leaning Times, The Guardian provided coverage of both
the initial release and the subsequent parliamentary debate.
The limiting of access worked differently in the Alberta context. The Calgary
Herald did agree to publish the initial commentary although the other major
Alberta paper, The Edmonton Journal, declined the opportunity to do so. However
while initial access was granted by the Calgary Herald, subsequent articles
were discourages. The response of the Calgary Herald parallels the response of
Accountancy in that, although the initial intervention was published, subsequent
political interventions were discouraged.
Besides just filtering stories, limited access ensures that interveners almost never
have the last word. When controversial opinions or interpretations are involved, final
decisions are made by senior editorseditors who are familiar with the norms and
objectives of the newspaper, especially the importance of not offending important
advertisers (Soloski, 1989, pp. 220221). This provides a partial explanation as to
why Accountancy and the Calgary Herald chose to run counter-opinion pieces
i.e., an attempt to balance coverage of controversial topics and, hence, to downplay
claims of bias10 .
Consequently, the decision to provide alternative numbers to challenge dominant
constructions runs two risks. First, is the risk to ones cultural capital. As Bourdieu
comments, the cultural capital of academics is accumulated over time but is often
risked in such social struggles, especially if there are allegations of errors in the
analysis (1990, p. 141). Thus, while in both cases the counter-claims regarding
the appropriateness of the interveners analyses and alternative numbers have not

Accounting interventions

21

stood test of time, the institutional fact that interveners rarely receive the last public
word implies that ones cultural capital is always at risk in such situationsand
even more so when alternative numbers are advanced. Second, there is the risk
that the provision of alternative numbers falls into the very same traps of realism
which the interveners are attempting to challenge (cf. Tinker, 1999). Thus while
the advancement of alternative numbers appears a priori have the potential to
effectively disrupt status quo articulations, the realityat least in the Alberta case
was that the structure of the media and the associated last word effect limits
the likely success of this strategy. Of course, at the moment of intervention it is
impossible to fully anticipate how ones arguments will be taken up and circulated.
However, it may be possible through networks of allies to influence how such
interventions are interpreted, echoed and amplified. In the discussion that follows,
we consider this issue in more detail.

Discussion
How, where and at what moment should critical accountants intervene in social
struggles? It was against the backdrop of these questions that we introduced and
examined two case studies of intervention, both of which involved submitting opinions and commentaries for publication in the popular (The Calgary Herald) and the
professional (Accountancy) printed media. In the discussion that follows we reconsider the characteristics of successful interventions, framing this reconsideration in
terms of the interventions undertaken by ourselves and others. More specifically, we
examine the choice of intervention sites, the tension between producing for producers versus consumers, the temporal dimension of interventions, and the importance
of networks of allies.
In reflecting back on the two interventions and juxtaposing them with the
interventions of others, we acknowledge the variety of potential sites and potential moments for intervention. Instead of submitting pieces to the printed
media at the time of perceived crisis, we could have intervened earlier or intervened in a different site. For example, we could have focused our efforts
on education (cf. Bebbington, 1997), turned to the offices of the chartered accountants of our respective countries (cf. Mitchell et al. 1998), established a
Canadian equivalent of the UKs independent Association for Accountancy and
Business Affairs, circulated copies of public policy types of papers published
in scholarly journals to the press and significant others, submitted to/opened
websites
(cf.
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~goldwatr/letter.html;http:
//zicklin.baruch.cuny.edu/critical/TTWebhorizons.htm),
submitted
to/developed newsletters, bulletins and monographs, written to Parliamentary
Committees, spoken and worked with non-accounting groups (cf. Taft, 1997, Hammond 1995), or even taken to street theatre, pamphleteering and story-telling as the
exploited working class once did (and still does in the less-industrialized Majority
world)11 . Interventions might have also been carried out in the area of accounting
accreditation and education (cf. IPA Young Scholar Colloquium 2000), or might have
involved the issuance of alternative accounting, auditing and ethical standards.

22

D. Neu et al.

One of the apparent tensions which the coal board and debt/deficit cases highlighted was that of producing for the producers versus producing for the consumers.
In the theoretical framing portion of the study we proposed that successful interventions are those which are rooted in reason, challenge the commonsense and are
produced for producers. Yet we also agree with Halls (1988, p. 56) comment that
winning consent requires the deployment of discourses that address the real and
lived experiences and contradictions of people. On the surface these statements
seem contradictory in that accounting numbers and experts are granted a rhetorical
space in which to intervene because of the perceived cognitive exclusiveness of
accounting. Furthermore, accounting numbers are assumed to provide a realist
account of the state of affairs (cf. Solomons, 1991). Thus how is it possible to challenge the presumed unproblematic nature of accounting numbers without retreating
further into technical issues which are beyond the lived experiences of people? As
the cases illustrate, technical challenges can always be countered by references to
ivory tower academics who are out of touch with the real worldthe effect being
to reinforce the commonsense nature of the status quo.
Halls comments seem to emphasize the importance of producing for the
consumers. And if the goal is to speak to the people, the mass media seems
to be all important given its centrality in current-day society. However, as our
analysis of the media indicated, stories that are consistent with the interests of
advertisers and media owners are preferred, as are stories that are easy to digest.
Again the emphasis seems to be on stories that either harmonize with prevailing
sentiments or that deal with scandal. Both interventions went against the grain
in that they attempted to challenge commonsense interpretations by highlighting
the problematic nature of accounting calculations. It is difficult to say whether
interventions based on this strategy will receive much media coverage (they will
certainly not receive the last word), an issue which may have long-term ramifications
in terms of effect.
If it is a choice between producing for the consumers versus the producers,
our sympathies fall on the producer side of this dichotomy. We agree with
Bourdieus comment that challenging status quo articulations necessarily involves
rational, measured dialogue and sound argument, reasoning, and demonstration
(1989, p. 104). Our experience also tells us that it is necessary to adhere to
certain universals in ones appeals, such as the public good and the idea of
interests. Further, both because the tension between the needs of cultural goods
consumers (for popular discourses and simple, digestible stories) and its producers
(for technical, scientific and reasoned argument) is seemingly irreconcilable, and
because the lure of the Sirens liquid song of pragmatism is (practically) dangerous
(Prasad & Elmes, 1999), we see a need (contra, for e.g., Gray, 1992; Bebbington,
1997; Gray et al., 1997; Owen et al., 1997) to produce for producers, for other out of
touch ivory tower academics. This is, substance (reliance on reason, challenges to
the commonsense, and producing for the producers) is a key criteria for evaluating
the success of an intervention.
This being said, we propose that by being attentive to both the temporal
dimensions of interventions and ones network of allies it is possible to partially
reconcile this dichotomy. For example in the two interventions which we examined,

Accounting interventions

23

the interventions were reactive in that they occurred after the start of the perceived
crises. As a consequence the terrain for the site of the struggle had already been
set. Other groups and institutions had already put forth their position papers and had
staked their position as experts within the field (cf. Taylor, 2001). As McQuaig (1995)
comments such preparatory ideological work often involves sustained effort over a
510 year period. Thus in a crowded field with known experts it is more difficult to
disrupt an emergent hegemonic settlement at the moment of crises. Furthermore,
given the structure of the media, these known experts will both be called upon as
authorized knowers and given the last word in disagreements between experts.
Thus these structures seem to constrain the potential effectiveness of a reactive
intervention, especially since this background ideological work serves to frame the
commonsense of the times (McQuaig, 1995, p. 33).
While reactive interventions are necessary because it is impossible to anticipate
all potential crises, having developed both public visibility and cultural capital within
a field prior to this moment seems important. Such preparatory work makes it
less necessary to produce for the consumers at this unanticipated junctureat
the moment of crisis it is too late since the discursive frame has already been set.
Furthermore, the long-term development of cultural capital and public trust makes
it more likely that ones reasoned message will be heard despite the heat of the
moment. In this regard, the long-term institution building activities of groups such
as Gray and colleagues (via CSEAR), Sikka and colleagues (via AABA), and the
Reform the AAA movement, positions these academics to intervene.
The development of networks of allies seems equally important. Whereas
consideration of the temporal dimensions encourages us to overcome the producer/consumer distinction by undertaking preparatory ideological work which
attempts to help set the discursive frame, a consideration of networks of allies
overcomes the producer/consumer dichotomy through the division of labour. As
mentioned previously, the media seems to have little memory for yesterdays
stories, especially counter-hegemonic ones. Therefore, one strategy is to have
sympathetic others at the periphery (Karabel, 1996, p. 208) pick up on the accounting interventionsin both its preparatory and crisis phasesand amplify the
message via multiple sites in ways that the original interveners at the core (ibid.)
can not. For example, letters-to-the-editor or working with politicians (Mitchell et al.,
forthcoming) could build on the original intervention by reiterating the alternative
accounting facts and by using these facts in the articulation of an alternative
vision. These subsequent articulations have the potential to be polemical in ways
unavailable to the original interveners. Thus, by partially separating the expertise
and polemical components of the intervention, critical accountants are somewhat
buffered from charges of being political.
These strategies resonate with Bourdieus prescription for a collective of
intellectuals and the need to avoid becoming isolated, individualistic or overly
specific. It may be necessary, as Bourdieu suggests, to develop via such means
as the Internet a true international network which would take the form of a circle
in which the centre is everywhere and nowhere (1989, p. 108). Here members
affiliated with such a network would propose interventions that all others would be
free to accept or reject. The website activities associated with the Reform the AAA

24

D. Neu et al.

and the other critical perspectives activities provide both a starting point and model
for developing these types of alliances.
In closing we need to be self-reflexive and ask ourselves the most basic question:
were these interventions successful given the three criteria of success discussed
in this paper? In terms of effecting change, the most obvious criterion, the answer
is maybe. We say maybe because the complexity of causal relations in the
fields in which these interventions took place and the inertia of the status quo
relative to our efforts is such that we may never know what the effects were.
However in terms of substance we do know that our interventions did challenge
the commonsense by challenging the assumptions underpinning the dominant
arguments, and that our interventions were based on sound argument, reasoning,
and demonstration. Further, by being carefully researched, somewhat indigestible
and by not appealing primarily to the consumer, we have to say that in terms of
substance the interventions were successful. Yet we clearly did fail in regards to
ensuring that our interventions were affiliated. We also failed to appreciate the
degree to which, at the moment of crisis, we were isolated voices pitted against
a powerful politically demobilizing technocracy, a hegemonic apparatus (Sassoon,
1980, p. 123) that both exploits its authority to favour generalized irresponsibility
and sends citizens off on vacation (Bourdieu, 1989, p. 107). This is to say we
strayed too close to the creature with the dreadful bark, Scylla. It was only at the
end of the day that we learned that indeed our struggles can only be successful if
they acknowledge both the temporal dimensions of interventing and the importance
of developing networks of allies. In this regard, our hope is that the current study will
encourage further discussion of these issues prior to the next crisis.

Acknowledgements
An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1997 Interdisciplinary
Perspectives of Accounting Conference. The authors would like to thank the
reviewers and the editors for their constructive comments.

Notes

Author:
Rodgers &
Williams 1995 is
not in reference
list

1. This itself is a significant presumption which we do not challenge here. But there should be questions
about whether well paid and relatively privileged business professors employed in large bureaucratic
and corporate universities can function as intellectuals (see Said, 1996).
2. Organic intellectuals, it should be clear, work in the name of both the dominant and the dominated,
typically having allegiances with one or the other, though the vast majority work in the defence
of the dominant class hegemony (Tinker, 1988). For example, Gramsci comments that organic
intellectuals are equally likely to arise within classes aligned with capital and that these intellectuals
fulfil both technical and ideological functions (1971, p. 6). The presence of academic accountants
on professional standard-setting bodies like FASB and the domination of academic organizations
such as the AAA by accounting academics from elite universities (Rodgers & Williams 1995) is
consistent with Gramscis observation regarding organic intellectuals. However, the interventions of
these individuals tends not to be directed at challenging the status quo, but rather at sustaining a
given set of social relations.

Accounting interventions

25

3. We recognize that the notion of an Odyssey has almost become a cliche but we are unwilling
to abandon this metaphor-both because of its provocative nature and its history within the critical
tradition (cf. Adorno & Horkheimer, 1979).
4. As is similarly the case with accounting professionals (see Dezalay 1995).
5. Such collectives need not be restricted to academics in the traditional sense but need to value and
protect intellectual work.
6. Bourdieus adherence to the notions of truth and reason would suggest that Bourdieus is
fundamentally a realist epistemology. Such is not the case, as his view on language (1991) suggests
and as his comment here on reason shows: . . .reason is not rooted in an ahistorical nature. . .[it is]
a human invention [which] can only assert itself in social games capable of favouring its appearance
and its exercise. . . (2000, p. 126).
7. This distinction between producing for consumers and producing for producers can be seen in
the accounting literature dealing with the profession of accountancy. Those who produce for the
producers (e.g. Tinker, 1999, 2000) challenge the notion of profession while those more inclined to
produce for the consumers (e.g. Briloff, 1990, 1993; Sikka & Willmott, 1995) tend to avoid discussion
of this received category, further sedimenting it in the academic unconscious and ensuring that it
remains an instrument rather than an object of analysis (Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992, p. 244). A
similar tension between the two types of producers can also be seen in the environmental accounting
literature (cf. Everett & Neu, 2000).
8. While we acknowledge that both print and electronic media were salient, we concentrate on print
media since both interventions originally appeared in those media and since print media provide the
archival traces necessary for this retrospective analysis.
9. It would be interesting to compare the representations of the Coal Board debate found in
Accountancy to those found in other professional magazines, particularly Accountancy Age, which
is not owned by any accountancy body.
10. This notion of balance is itself an interesting element in hegemonic struggles, as one reviewer
observed. The concern with balance tends to be abandoned when things are spoken in favour of the
status quo and invoked only when the critics want to speak. However this being said, the dynamics
of the mass media may encourage the initial publication of controversial pieces in that scandal not
only sells (cf. Tumber, 1993) but helps make individual careers.
11. For example, street theatre while having the ability to resonate with the lived experiences of people
doesnt seem to offer accounting academics a comparative advantage in terms of their cultural
capital.

Author:
Dezalay 1995 is
not in reference
list

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