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Lifestyle, status and occupational differentiation in Victorian accountancy

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  • Edwards, John Richard
  • Walker, Stephen P.

Abstract

New insights are offered to the professionalization of accountants in Britain circa 1881 by examining the private foundations of occupational status and identity as manifested by domestic arrangements and residence patterns. Drawing on literature pertaining to the relationship between consumption and socio-cultural differentiation the study deploys empirical evidence from the British census to analyse status identifiers such as servant keeping, household location and neighbourhood composition. These aspects of lifestyle are taken as signifying practices of middle-class affiliation and narratives of the social identification of professional accountants. The extent to which accountants achieved status through consumption practices is illustrated by comparisons with a range of other occupational groups and social classes in Victorian Britain.

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  • Edwards, John Richard & Walker, Stephen P., 2010. "Lifestyle, status and occupational differentiation in Victorian accountancy," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 2-22, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:35:y:2010:i:1:p:2-22
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    3. Garry D. Carnegie & Christopher J. Napier, 2012. "Accounting's past, present and future: the unifying power of history," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 25(2), pages 328-369, February.
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    6. Jeff Everett & Constance Friesen & Dean Neu & Abu Shiraz Rahaman, 2018. "We Have Never Been Secular: Religious Identities, Duties, and Ethics in Audit Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 1121-1142, December.
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