11.gray 0003www.iiste.org call for_paper-18

Issues in Social and Environmental Accounting
Vol. 2, No. 1 June 2008
Pp. 3-18

Social and Environmental Accounting and
Reporting: From Ridicule to Revolution?
From Hope to Hubris? - A Personal Review
of the Field* 1 2

Rob Gray
The School of Management
University of St Andrews, UK

Abstract

The objective of this essay is to provide a coherent overview of author’s research and scholar-
ship over the last two decades or so. As such it is a compromise between a revisionist history,
an auto-critique and a review essay. This compromise arises, primarily, for two reasons. First,
the work I have undertaken in developing social accounting has often been ad hoc and prag-
matic; it certainly has not followed a carefully crafted master plan or research design. Sec-
ondly, the work is heavily context dependent. Issues such as personal history, changing atti-
tudes in politics, business and the profession, the development of the author’s understandings
and, interaction with colleagues have all had major influence on the research. Some of the work
may only make sense when seen in those contexts.

Keywords: Social and environmental accounting, social and environmental reporting, per-
sonal review, sustainability

INTRODUCTION is the area of study to which I have dedi-
cated my scholarship. It is not easy to
Social accounting3 is not an organised, define - but a definition will help. My
wholly coherent area or activity. It is currently preferred definition is:
wide-ranging, organic and disjointed. At
times, it can be contradictory, confusing .. the preparation and publication of an
and divergent. It can be either trivial or account about an organisation's social,
profound, conservative or radical. This environmental, employee, community,

Rob Gray is Professor of Social and Environmental Accounting and Director of the Centre for Social and Environ-
mental Accounting Research (CSEAR), School of Management, University of St. Andrews, UK, email: rhg1@st-
andrews.ac.uk

4 R. Gray / Issues in Social and Environmental Accounting 1 (2008) 3-18

customer and other stakeholder interac- In essence, the history that lies behind
tions and activities and, where, possible, this work is as follows. The 1970s saw a
the consequences of those interactions fairly widespread interest in issues of
and activities. The social account may corporate social responsibility and the
contain financial information but is first substantive experiments with social
more likely to be a combination of quan- accounting and auditing. Social account-
tified non-financial information and de- ing made it as far as a legal requirement
scriptive, non-quantified information. in France, (the bilan social), had tangi-
The social account may serve a number ble influence on corporate disclosure
of purposes but discharge of the organi- requirements in the UK and was seri-
sation's accountability to its stake- ously as a potential addition to company
holders must be the clearly dominant of law in the UK in the late 1970s. Al-
those reasons and the basis upon which though pockets within the accounting
the social account is judged. profession were enthusiastic supporters
(Gray, 2000) of social accounting, it never made it
into the orthodoxy of either the profes-
This essay is an attempt to provide a sion or of business practice. There are
coherent overview of my research and some obvious, though largely un-stated,
scholarship over the last two decades or reasons for the non-adoption of social
so. As such it is a compromise between accounting (for example, it threatened
a revisionist history, an auto-critique and capital with costs and with accountabil-
a review essay. This compromise arises, ity). However, the principal stated rea-
primarily, for two reasons. First, the sons for its status were that it was not a
work I have undertaken in developing part of "accounting" and it was not co-
social accounting has often been ad hoc herent - either theoretically or practi-
and pragmatic; it certainly has not fol- cally. Both of which accusations were
lowed a carefully crafted master plan or probably true at the time. 1979 and the
research design. Secondly, the work is, election of Thatcher in the UK signalled
inevitably I suppose, heavily context the end of any brief flirtation with con-
dependent. Issues such as personal his- cerns like social accounting and until
tory, changing attitudes in politics, busi- they rode in on the coat tails of environ-
ness and the profession, the development mental concern in the late 1980s, social
of my own understandings and, very accounting and auditing were the prov-
importantly, interaction with colleagues ince of the dispossessed and dissatisfied.
have all had major influence on the re- By 1990, however, everybody was sud-
search. Some of the work may only denly "green" and the environmental
make sense when seen in those contexts. agenda has steadily developed and,
2
* This paper was previously published in Modelli di I should emphasise from the outset that this is, explic-
Rendicontazione Etico-Sociale e Applicazioni Pratiche itly, a personal and self-reflective essay and is, as a
Vol.3 2005 (pp113-131) and permission for republica- consequence, far more self-referential that would nor-
tion has been granted by Editors (G.Rusconi and M. mally be considered appropriate. Being personal, the
Dorigatti) through the author essay also has an explicitly UK orientation. I apologise
1
This paper has been translated by Massimo Con- if either of these emphases offend anybody.
3
trafatto and has appeared as "Il Social and Environ- I will not concern myself with nomenclature here.
mental Accounting and Reporting: da speranza a sfida? Generally, I use "social accounting" as the generic term
Un'opinione personale sul tema" Modelli di Rendicon- to cover the whole area of social, environmental, sus-
tazione Etico-Sociale e Applicazioni Pratiche (eds G. tainability, employee etc accounting, reporting and
Rusconi and M. Dorigatti) Vol.3 2005 (pp113-131) (see disclosure
above)

R. Gray / Issues in Social and Environmental Accounting 1 (2008) 3-17 5

much to my astonishment, has not been with Reg Mathews, James Guthrie and
wheeled off into obscurity again. The Lee Parker that provided the support to
environment even finds mention in ac- take this 'social accounting' seriously.
counting standards and some areas of The turning point was the 1987 book
accounting education. By the mid 1990s with Dave Owen and Keith Maunders -
even social accounting was re-emerging Corporate Social Reporting. Not that
- first in the non-profit sector and then, resistance disappeared at that point - or,
belatedly, in the corporate sector. By the indeed, has disappeared since. Active
early 21st Century, social and environ- hostility to environmental issues in ac-
mental accounting are almost main- counting was present until 1990; active
stream. The history now, it seems, will hostility to social accounting was pre-
be a record of the struggle for the type, sent until the mid 1990s; and passive
ubiquity and quality of such accounting hostility - or, at best, overwhelming in-
and reporting rather than for its exis- difference - is still present in both the
tence. profession and academe4. Social and
environmental accounting has garnered,
This "history" (and versions of it) have and continues to garner, considerable
repeatedly influenced my work. (See, hostility from critical theorists, feminists
especially, Gray, 2000; Gray and Beb- and post-modernists - and although this
bington, 2000; Owen, Gray and Beb- critique continues, it has helped generate
bington, 1997; Gray, 2002a; Gray a more coherent theoretical basis for
2002b;). Influenced by a combination of social accounting.
Schumacher (1973); Goldsmith et al.,
(1972), Dickson (1974) and the work of These experiences of resistance have
Social Audit (Medawar, 1976) together encouraged a more self-reflective and
with an early exposure to Keith Maun- careful approach to both theoretical and
der's work plus three years' training and empirical research in social accounting.
studying with (now) KPMG and the In- This is not least because one interpreta-
stitute of Chartered Accountants in Eng- tion of the resistance might be that the
land and Wales, I was drawn into aca- issues and/or the subject of social ac-
demic life by an advertisement for a lec- counting indeed, have no place in ac-
turer in "social accounting" at a (then) counting and/or are a malign influence
Polytechnic. There was, it transpired, on the public good. Such concerns have
very little literature on social accounting been addressed directly in a number
and attempts to undertake research in the of my papers (Gray, Owen and Adams,
field (as part of my Masters degree) or to 1996; Gray, 1992; Gray, 2002a; Gray
make it a personal specialism when ap- 2002b;) which are briefly considered
plying for posts at "traditional" universi- below.
ties were met with resistance, scepticism
and, indeed, hostility. That theme of From this preamble, it is possible to
hostility to and scepticism about social identify some of my motivations in un-
accounting - typically coupled with as- 4
These assertions have motivated - and are developed
sertions that it was not a part of further in - educationally related research in which I
"accounting" - is an abiding and forma- have been involved; see, for example, Gray, Bebbing-
tive influence. It was only meeting up ton and McPhail, 1994; Gray, Collison, French,
McPhail and Stevenson, 2001; and Collison, Gray,
with David Owen and, subsequently, Owen, Sinclair and Stevenson, 2000.


dertaking this work. These motivations The following section provides an over-
have varied over the course of the study view of social and environmental ac-
and are historically and pragmatically counting. It provides a brief definition,
determined. The aims include: outlines its concerns and conceits and, in
particular, explains the central role that I
to deconstruct "accounting" and bet- have given to accountability in my work.
ter understand its limitations, its al- Part II explores social accounting and its
legiances and its influences - in development. Part III turns to the envi-
practice and in education; ronmental and sustainability dimensions
to articulate a view which formally of social accounting while IV attempts
relates "accounting" and "social ac- to provide a reconciliation of the themes
counting"; whilst offering a personal view on the
to offer a reasonably rigorous view principal challenges for academic work
of social accounting that expressed a in the field. There is a brief concluding
coherent theoretical position that comment.
could be related to social accounting
practice, (i.e. a praxis which ac-
cesses both the normative and posi- OVERVIEW
tive dimensions of the area);
to make social accounting This introduction to the subject area is
"teachable" predicated on a useful conceit. That is, in
to engage with colleagues not active the early stages of "social accounting" it
in social accounting and entice them was assumed by many that this new
into discussion of the subject and its "accounting" could be considered as a
implications; subset of conventional "financial" ac-
to engage with and help develop counting. On the contrary, however, it
practice; proves useful to imagine that there is a
to seek ways to keep a social and universe of all possible accountings of
environmental agenda alive in ac- which conventional accounting is a very
counting and business; minor subset. Conventional accounting
to support and encourage new lec- refers to only those accountings which:
turers and researchers in the field; relate to specific accounting entities;
to seek to change company law re- describe only economic events; employ
garding social and environmental only financial description; and assume a
disclosure; limited set of "users" for the resultant
to respond to institutional and indi- accounts - most typically and ubiqui-
vidual initiatives that would foster tously, private sector owners of capital5.
social and environmental account- Social accounting might be thought of as
ing. that universe of all possible accountings
and as the accounting one gets when the
Each of these aims (in so far as one can artificial limits of conventional account-
assess one's own motivations) is present, ing are removed.
to a greater or lesser degree, in most of
my papers.
5
See. also, Bebbington, Gray and Laughlin, 2001 and
earlier editions through which these ideas were initially
This essay is now organised as follows. developed.


To leave matters like this would be to understood "accounting". Although the
leave one with an impossibly large and literature on accountability was woefully
ill-formed area of investigation. Conse- thin in accounting when I first started
quently, the conventional limitation of researching the area, the term (typically
"entity" has been maintained - most of undefined and unexamined) was in very
social accounting is concerned with ac- widespread use.
counts about companies, in fact6. And
the universe of possible accounts about This notion of acceptability was impor-
and by organisations is anchored (or has tant in other ways. I wanted a concept
been anchored) - with varying degrees of that derived from notions that were ac-
firmness - to the notion of accountabil- ceptable to those with whom I would
ity. speak - colleagues, students, accountants
and business people. It had to be a con-
Accountability has been key to the cept that not only avoided immediate
whole project. Accountability is a duty - rejection but was recognisable from
sometimes empirical (typically legal), many discourses - that is a place where
sometimes moral - and it arises from the the Marxist could talk to the liberal.
responsibility that individuals and or- Most of those I encounter as an aca-
ganisations have to provide "accounts" demic and researcher will, at least on the
of their activities. The accountable entity surface, subscribe to "democracy" to
is typically subject to two responsibili- some degree or other as a base accept-
ties: the responsibility to act; and the able idea. A democracy (which is cer-
responsibility to provide an account of tainly not a simple and singular notion)
those actions, (these may be synony- can only run if the demos is informed
mous). Accountability is an explicitly and if its rights are identifiable and re-
normative (and ultimately moral) notion spected. Accountability turns out to be a
tied closely with responsibility and re- pre-requisite for a democracy. Thus
sponding - to differing degrees - to soci- could "accounting" in the broadest sense
ety's right to information. In this regard be argued to be principally motivated by
it is a fundamentally democratic no- democratic ideals and to be an essential
tion. (See, for example, Gray, Owen component of a democratic society. In
and Adams, 1996). this way, "accounting" would be able to
continue its professional claims of work-
The reasons for the use of accountability ing in the public interest.
as a central concept are complex. In the
first place I needed a conceptual appara- From this perspective it becomes possi-
tus in which both "conventional account- ble to ask questions about what sorts of
ing" and "social accounting" were accountings are necessary, who has what
equally at home. Accountability pro- rights and whether or not conventional
vides a convenient normative framework accounting meets any democratic desid-
for both. Equally, whatever was used erata. It turns out that conventional ac-
had to be something that accountants counting is probably anti-democratic and
would recognise as related to how they that, to the extent that there is no formal
social accounting, Britain - and much of
6
It should be noted that there is, however, an increasing the so-called developed world - are not
interest in social accounting for other organisations
such as non-profit and community-based enterprises.
democratic.


Equally, however, it is necessary to Second, different elements of social ac-
demonstrate that the vast majority of all counting do, from time to time, gain a
social accounting - including environ- high level of attention and develop as
mental reporting and so-called sustain- sub-subjects (as it were) with little or no
ability reporting - fails quite spectacu- consideration for the overall coherence
larly to discharge any reasonable sense of, what I am calling here, social ac-
of accountability either, (see Gray counting. Employee, employment and
2000). union issues experienced this attention
in the 1970s and into the early 1980s.
Thus in terms of the motivations out- Environmental issues - together with
lined above, my work seeks to offer a sustainability - have experienced this
substantive challenge to conventional attention since 1990. (This is examined
accounting and expose new angles on below).
that monolith that we so take for
granted. It relates "accounting" and One key theme in the work here has
"social accounting" in a systematic way been the exploration of trends and pat-
and provides an "acceptable" basis for terns in disclosure by UK companies.
articulating, teaching and debating forms Gray, Kouhy and Lavers, (1995a;
of accounting. 1995b) were a response to a number of
factors. These factors included: the di-
versity and inconsistency of studies of
SOCIAL ACCOUNTING AND RE- social reporting; lack of consistency in
PORTING measurement methods; lack of formal
theorising; the absence of longitudinal
Social accounting has generally been studies; and, most especially, the lack of
taken to comprise reporting about a spe- datasets for UK researchers.
cific range of issues and/or reporting to a These papers laid out, carefully, how
variety of stakeholders. The topics/ semiotic meaning could be used consis-
stakeholders are normally assumed to tently in content analysis (the principal
cover: employee and employment is- means of measuring social disclosure)
sues; environmental issues; customer and introduced the need for decision
and product issues; and community and rules and consistency. (These are matters
wider social issues. There are (at least) very competently developed in Hackston
two problems with this simple outline. and Milne, 1996; and Milne and Adler,
First, there is no unique or even well- 1999). However, for reasons which re-
argued reason why these four categories main unclear, social accounting re-
of things should (a) dominate and/or (b) searchers still do not approach their
be exclusive. Other matters such as hu- work with consistency in their descrip-
man rights, working with repressive re- tion and measurement of social disclo-
gimes, corporate governance and at- sure and, consequently, the comparabil-
tempts to influence government and pol- ity of studies remains a restriction on the
icy makers would all be seen as likely field..
candidates for the attention of social ac-
counting. But whether each would ap- However, the Gray et al (1995a, b) pa-
pear and under which heading they pers do illustrate the value of longitudi-
would be identified remains blurred. nal studies and they link the described


trends in UK reporting to - what has be- corporate characteristics. As with the
come - the standard range of theoretical Gray, Kouhy and Lavers, the principal
explanations for social reporting. These innovation in the paper lies in the use of
theories - stakeholder in its various a longitudinal data set. In doing so the
forms; legitimacy theory and its vari- paper not only demonstrates one plausi-
ants; what is called "political economy ble explanation for inconsistencies in the
theory" and its variants; plus the eco- results of prior studies but also points
nomic theories like agency theory - are towards an exploitation of triangulation
all massively under-specified and can across studies. That is, simple cross-
only offer, at best, partial explanations sectional studies have failed to recognise
of social reporting behaviour. These lon- that changes in disclosure patterns need
gitudinal studies in Gray, et al (1995a; not be annual events but could easily be,
1995b)graphically illustrate (literally) as field work would suggest, periodic
the incompleteness of reporting in the events which only a longitudinal study
absence of regulation, the changing fash- would capture. Furthermore, the study,
ions in voluntary disclosure and the fail- in employing a wide team of researchers
ures of extant theory to fully explain or including a finance expert and a statisti-
predict reporting changes. cian, tried to raise the standard of studies
in this area - standards which have been
A side ambition in these papers was also patchy at best.
to establish a data set of social disclo-
sures - backed up by a library of the re- The explicitly functional methodology
porting data (typically the annual re- of Gray et al (2001) and the positivistic
ports). This data set (the Centre for So- leanings of Gray et al, (1995a) contrast
cial and Environmental Accounting Re- starkly, with the ethnomethodology
search- CSEAR - database) has been which lies at the heart of Gray, Dey,
used by a number of researchers and is Owen, Evans and Zadek, (1997)8.
now available for download (free) on the
CSEAR website7. It has been used in a Gray et al, (1997) is an attempt - both
number of doctoral studies and is em- incomplete and not entirely successful -
ployed to good effect in Gray, Javad, to articulate and guide the practice of
Power and Sinclair (2001). social accounting (which was becoming
more widespread in the mid-1990s)
Gray et al, (2001) shares two compo- within a coherent theoretical framework,
nents with the above two papers. It ex- That is, the paper is reflexively deduc-
ploits the uniqueness of the CSEAR da- tive and inductive - drawing from the
tabase and it self-consciously seeks a experience of practice whilst trying to
replication of prior, predominantly US deduce key normative characteristics for
and Australasian, studies in a UK con- "ideal" social accounts. It had two politi-
text. In the present case, the replication cal aims. The first aim was to try and
(and development) concerns the relation- offer a coherent framework (what ac-
ship between disclosures and observable counting bodies have called a
7
"conceptual framework") that the newly
The access to the database was encouraged and sup-
ported as part of a suite of studies covered by a 3 year 8
The issue of apparently conflicting methodologies is
research grant from the Institute of Chartered Account- explicitly examined in Gray 2002 and will be touched
ants of Scotland upon later in this essay.


emerging Institute for Social and Ethical despair will be re-examined in the final
Accountability (ISEA) could use in de- section of this essay. The feelings derive
riving its standards for best practice. Its from a number of sources - one of which
second aim was derived from the first in is the academic community.
that the hope was that it would be possi-
ble to demonstrate that social accounting Much of the effort reported in these pa-
standards could be genuinely derived pers had a sub-text of seeking to gain
from theory -as opposed to pragmati- more co-operation - and, thereby, syn-
cally justified in ad hoc ways. The paper ergy - between the limited number of
also drew extensively from the personal academics working in the area of social
experiences of four of the authors in de- accounting and to provide support for
riving, development and proselytising them in this endeavour. CSEAR (Centre
social accounting at a small fair-trade for Social and Environmental Account-
company called Traidcraft - the pioneers ing Research), and the CSEAR database
in the field of social accounting. are the most tangible manifestations of
this attempt. This has, to a significant
I believe that the paper remains the most degree, been a privilege as so many in
comprehensive attempt to significantly the social accounting networks are im-
relate theory and practice and it does mensely mutual and supportive. How-
offer a perfectly practicable and theoreti- ever, the attempts have tended to fall
cal basis upon which social accounting down when they have sought mutual
can be derived. However, in this, as in purpose with consultants, practice, regu-
so much I do, I demonstrate ludicrous lators or non-social accounting academ-
optimism and childlike naivete. ISEA, ics - especially in the US. On these occa-
despite the brave and selfless efforts of sions seeking synergy, co-operation or
some, has not become the professional systematic development of theory and
body some of us hoped. The usual issues method has been frustratingly fruitless.
of corporate funding, respectability and A paper by Sutton and Arnold (1998)
the intellectual foundations and integrity demonstrates this most clearly. The pa-
more typically associated with private per proposed a "new" approach to
sector consultancy mean that ISEA acts "social accounting". It was used as a
less to hold large organisations to ac- stimulus by the editors of Critical Per-
count than, perhaps, it acts as a quasi- spectives on Accounting to hold a forum
autonomous legitimation process for of responses to the suggestion. My re-
corporate non-accountability. It has be- sponse (Gray, 1998) dwelt on the re-
come - to a degree at least - captured, invention of wheels, the foolishness of
(see, for example, Owen et al, 2000). It not considering prior work and the hu-
is sometimes difficult to escape the idea bris of launching proposals without ana-
that the last thing that many involved in lysing, justifying or grounding the pro-
producing or regulating social account- posals.
ing want is any sort of process which
derives defensible and grounded stan- There is an important personal element
dards that might lead to more account- to this - which may or may not be
ability and transparency. unique to social accounting. Sutton and
Arnold are not unique in social account-
This growing cynicism, radicalism and ing in taking virtually no cognisance of


prior work. Was the work (much of it bates - certainly outside North America.
my own) ignored because it was of poor And yet my motivation to develop social
quality? ignored because it wasn't under- accounting arose from concerns for
stood? ignored because it wasn't known community and environment - pretty
about?. All are exceptionally poor ex- much the sorts of concerns that UK and
cuses for scholarship and do not encour- European Greens had emphasised, (and
age one to feel optimistic about the no- to degree continue to emphasise). The
tions of scholarly communities. The early material cited above had seen envi-
upshot is that arguments that one ronmental issues as a major component
thought were dead are re-hashed; causes of the social accounting agenda. With
that one thought one had solved are re- the upsurge of interest in (and respect-
invented; questions that one thought ability of) "environmental issues" from
were identified as trivial are re- the late 1980s, "environmental account-
investigated. And nowhere is there a ing and reporting" began to take on a life
systematic argument to which I or col- of its own that was only loosely linked
leagues could respond. The work ap- (empirically or theoretically) to the ear-
pears to be dismissed, ignored or over- lier work.
looked. It is a strangely debilitating
sense - especially when, normally, those Although they were certainly not the
in social accounting feel so very pas- first works on environmental issues and
sionately about what they are doing - or, accounting (see, for example, Ullmann,
at least, trying to do.9 1976; Dierkes and Preston, 1977), my
monograph and book (Gray, 1990 and
The re-invention of wheels, the ignoring Gray et al, 1993) certainly opened the
of prior work and the entirely unjustified issues up and set a number of hares run-
claims of territory and/or originality are ning in both practice and academe. The
all significant issues in the development (often neophyte) environmental account-
of environmental accounting agenda. ing scholar was faced with a panoply of
developments in practice - in financial
and management accounting as well as
ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING in reporting and auditing. The scholar
AND REPORTING — TOWARDS would need to engage with, inter alia, a
SUSTAINABILITY growing ethical investment movement
and an increasing level of claims that the
Environmental issues had, for no very environment was safe in the hands of
obvious reason, received relatively little business. Scholars would have to try to
attention in the social accounting de- locate this within the framework(s) of
social accounting research and theoris-
9
A major positive experience has been the progres- ing whilst dealing with the emerging
sively constructive debate as a result of the critique
offered by critical theorists of social accounting. This
theoretical and practical exigencies of
has been exceptionally productive. Unfortunately, such sustainability. It was unlikely that
debate has not been offered by either the more man- "environmental accounting" - any more
agerialist of social accountants or, more particularly,
those in conventional accounting and finance who, than social accounting before it - was
presumably, consider social accounting to be a major going to emerge as a coherent and or-
irrelevance. It is difficult to respond to a lack of argu- ganised sphere of research, theory and
ment - especially when the global social and environ-
mental data could not counsel complacency. practice.


But for me, something much more im- cept of sustainability to the organisation
portant happened in 1990. Up until that - typically a company - and articulates
time I had always felt defensive - having this application through accounting.10 It
to justify what I did, why I did it and to develops further the engaging, even ar-
defend it from both left and right wing resting notion that most companies have
attack (most famously Tinker et al., not made profits for many years and
1991). Suddenly, from being somebody have been paying dividends (income)
who was tolerated (at best) I was some- out of natural (i.e. other peoples')
one sought out and lionised - my 5 min- wealth, (i.e. capital). If one translates
utes in the sun had arrived. sustainability into the economists' no-
tions of capital one can, as Turner and
At first, it took some mental rearrange- Pearce demonstrate (Turner, 1987;
ment to move from a modest defensive Pearce, 1991), subdivide this into natu-
mode to an aggressive constructive ral, critical and man-made capital. One
mode but a number of my papers chart can then demonstrate fairly convincingly
my attempts to respond to the opportuni- that the maintenance of capital - one of
ties offered by the ebullient green the very few fundamental concepts in
agenda. accounting - is not being adhered to and,
consequently, corporations are not sus-
Gray (1992) was a very strange personal tainable and are not profitable. This pa-
experience. This paper lays out the deep per provided a basic calculus that might
(er) green ecological agenda and seeks be used to demonstrate this and con-
to relate it to accounting. The first links cluded that - given the state of the global
between sustainability and accounting commons (i.e. the diminishing natural
(of which I am aware) are outlined and capital) - the answer had to be the
the radical green agenda is linked di- "right" one.11
rectly with pragmatism. That agenda is
placed in direct opposition to marxian Gray and Bebbington (2000) is a further
and liberal traditions, (i.e. virtually all development of these ideas but in an
prior accounting and finance research). empirical and expressly engaging con-
This was enormously liberating. I was text. This paper contains the results of a
able, for the first time, to express what I study commissioned by the United Na-
believed about the world - and get it tions to investigate why and to what ex-
published!. This was not what I had been tent large corporations understood envi-
trying to do up until this point - I had ronmental accounting and sustainability
been trying to compromise and seek rec- and what impediments there were to
onciliation, reasonableness and fairness - adopting the idea and practices more
typically through accountability. From fully. The study employed a series of
this point onwards my radical agenda administered questionnaires (in a num-
has slowly begun to emerge from the
closet (of which more later). 10
It is this development of ideas that provide the start-
ing point from which Jan Bebbington's excellent work
Gray (1994) is a less radical piece at one in accounting and sustainability have developed.
11
level but seeks to develop, from the My attempts to gain funding to examine these con-
tentions were unsuccessful. However, CSEAR was
above paper, a more subversive agenda. commissioned by the (then) SOAFD to advise on a
It applies the widely accepted (?) con- significantly funded project which examined these
propositions in the agricultural sector.


ber of languages) plus interviews and stereotype and avoid taking initiatives in
mini-case studies in 19 countries with this field. Indeed, accountants and the
some of the world's largest companies12. accounting systems look much more
It demonstrates empirically, what is, I likely to prevent environmental innova-
increasingly believe, self-evident - tion than to aid it. The central argument
namely that social justice and environ- (in this essentially managerialist piece -
mental stewardship (sustainability in which supports the essentially manageri-
other words) are anything but "safe in alist Accounting for the Environment) is
the hands of business". And yet this is that accountants are an essential compo-
exactly what business - typically through nent of any organisation's environmental
organs such as WBCSD, ICC, WTO, response and, indeed, accounting can -
Davos - does indeed claim. And these in principle at least - be a major innova-
claims have influenced governments and tor with relatively little difficulty. It
pan-national bodies and persuaded them seems that some combination of the
not to legislate nor to exercise any form training, education, selection of account-
of control over (particularly) MNC ac- ants and, perhaps, even the very nature
tivity. This conclusion of self-delusion of accounting all conspire to prevent the
or deliberate deceit in the face of in- fulfilment of such self-evident innova-
creasingly desperate social and environ- tions13.
mental disaster has forced me to develop
yet further, my increasingly radical ori- The second of these papers (Gray et al,
entation. 1995c) was more consciously explora-
tory and inductive and sought, princi-
By contrast, however, two other earlier pally through interviews, to explore how
papers - Bebbington, Gray, Thomson environmental reporting comes to frui-
and Walters (1994) and Gray, Bebbing- tion, how it is stimulated, who champi-
ton, Walters and Thomson, (1995) - are ons it. The study employed Laughlin's
more conventional empirical investiga- (1991) model of organisational change
tions within which the political agenda (and, indeed, owes a great deal to his
(or, at least, the more radical intent of advice and support) to examine the envi-
that agenda) is less overt. These two pa- ronmental agenda generally and environ-
pers emerged from the field work which mental reporting in particular as agents
was undertaken to write the book Ac- of change. It finds, somewhat against
counting for the Environment - Gray and prevailing views, that environmental
Bebbington (1993). reporting is often the initiative of single
individuals and that whilst reporting
Bebbington et al (1994) is mainly based opens up the world to the company, the
on a postal questionnaire and explores champion of the reporting used the re-
the extent to which accountants can help ports as a way of letting the outside into
to develop the environmental agenda the organisation and, thereby, strength-
within organisations. It finds that ac- ening his or her position. There is thus a
countants are more likely to follow their link with the material referenced in the
earlier part of this essay in that here we
12
This range of coverage was possible through the
13
exploitation of the CSEAR networks and, particularly, These concerns are key to the work I have undertaken
its network of country associates who supported, and at on educational issues in accounting. These are refer-
times undertook, the research. enced in an earlier footnote.


have evidence of the ways in which re- A properly applied form of social ac-
porting can enable and, indeed, be a po- countability will, indeed, lead to sub-
tential agent of change in the name of stantive change. Nevertheless, there is
the social and the environmental. more than enough evidence to show that
social accounting more often than not
The papers I have cited here to represent ends up captured and it behoves re-
my work on environmental accounting searchers to (i) acknowledge this and to
and reporting illustrate some of the ten- (ii) constantly seek ways to disrupt
sions that I believe many must feel. The (apparent) consensus and work with the
tensions between a kind of Foucauldian idea that hegemony is never complete.
self-disciplining and the desire for self-
expression; the need to only talk, write At its simplest, this is an argument for
and lecture at a level which may engage pragmatism when one is faced with a
ones' colleagues and students; the need drastic need for change but has little ac-
to offer alternatives and demonstrate cess to obvious vehicles for change.
their practicability whilst increasingly When faced with overwhelming inertia
despairing of a system (economic and what can one do?14 The second paper in
educational) within which nothing of this section, Gray, 2002a), explores this
aspirational value is possible. These con- more carefully. This paper is a review
cerns are dealt with more explicitly in essay (commissioned by AOS for its 20th
the final section of this essay. anniversary) which tries to find a new
"history" of social accounting. This his-
tory seeks, as the title suggests, to con-
LOOKING FOR THE FUTURE trast theoretical nicety with the pragma-
tism of engagement coupled with the
I have selected three publications for this inspiration of imagination. I suppose the
penultimate part of the essay which rep- audiences for this sermon are both social
resent, in my own mind at least, some- accountants (trying to encourage an
thing of a taking-stock, the beginnings imaginative confidence) and conven-
of a potential turning point perhaps. I tional accounting and finance academics
will briefly outline these papers and, in (trying to persuade them that questions
doing so, touch upon a few matters of matter more than solutions).
methodology that, traditionally at least,
should feature in any respectable review This method - and, indeed, methodologi-
of research. cal - rumination is explored further in
the paper in British Accounting Review
Owen et al, (1997) is a short essay (Gray, 2002b)). Looking back over a
which was led by David Owen and ad- (probably, fairly successful) social ac-
dressed, more directly than we had in the counting project - a retrospective in-
past, the central tension of political spired by the AOS paper - clarified that
judgement which had been at the heart key issues of passion, context, praxis,
of the critical theoretical attack on the pragmatism and engagement have run
social accounting project. In essence, the through the whole project. Social ac-
paper reviews the evidence that social counting largely demonstrates a com-
accounting can change - and has
14
changed - perceptions and relationships. Pacifism ruling out, in my case, the possibilities of
revolution and/or terrorism.


plete disregard for methodological con- listen to most academic discussion, to sit
cerns - if positivism provides useful in- in on most lectures and seminars, you
sights then, fine. If an engagement can could be forgiven for believing that
be most productively achieved using never has capitalism been so robust or
ethnography, then that is fine too. It is a the prospects for the joy and fulfilment
dawning realisation that matters of the- of mankind so positive. You would find
ory, elegance, methodology or even the yourself wondering just who perpetrates
strutting of intellectual testosterone are all this angst about the power of MNCs,
matters of such triviality - are deserving the abdication of governments, the rates
of such utter scorn - when faced with the of species extinction, the growth in eco-
facts of starvation, privation, degrada- logical footprints, the rate of child
tion, injustice and so on. It all comes deaths through drought and so on15.
back to what is it to be human? What is
it to live the good life - or, rather, to Because that, at its heart, is what an es-
work the good work? What is it to be a say such as this - as part of the social
scholar (despite the abuse of the current accounting project - is about. I remain,
climate)? For social accountants, that as I have become better informed, no
means that the research question is all - less able to savour my awesome level of
are you asking a question which bears comfort and privilege than I was when
directly on matters of injustice, sustain- first I answered an advertisement to
ability or exploitation? If not - then why teach social accounting. I have more
not? Why should we waste our time in fellow travellers than I did, but in terms
such vain, intellectually prissy pursuits? of substantive impact on research, teach-
If the question is sufficiently important - ing and practice the project has been a
then the means of answering it is secon- failure.
dary to the "cash value" of getting an And yet, as I glumly consider the bleak
answer that may - just may - contribute prospects I see for my children and my
to the public good. Thus, do we arrive students I do have to recall that the last
(by a different route and with a great time I wrote such a gloomy prognosis
deal less playfulness) at the same place (in the Introduction to Corporate Social
as Feyerabend and recognise the irrele- Reporting in 1986) within 5 years envi-
vance of method. ronmental (and to an extent social) ac-
counting and reporting had been trans-
formed. So, it is optimism which keeps
CONCLUDING COMMENT the project moving whilst it is the pessi-
mism - or realism - that makes it so very
And, continuing the retrospective review necessary.
- has the project been successful, met its
objectives? Surprisingly enough, it has
succeeded in a number of the objectives
listed in the Introduction. CSEAR, in
particular, has played a very positive and 15
Central to much of the foregoing and essential to this
surprisingly enabling role. Many of the point is that, despite 20 years of assiduous searching, I
am yet to come across one substantive piece of work
objectives, however, remain relatively which argues - against the enormous volume of work on
un-assailed. In particular, to read most social and ecological crisis - that capitalism is fine and
the world is going to be wonderful. It all looks like self-
accounting and finance publications, to delusion dressed up as optimism to me


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