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Accountability as aporia, testimony, and gift

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  • McKernan, John Francis

Abstract

This paper contributes to the understanding of accountability in its relation with responsibility. It applies Derrida's work on responsibility, testimony, and gift to the problematic of accountability. Accountability's entanglement in the tension between, morality and ethics, singular and general responsibilities is examined, and Derrida's analysis of the aporia of responsibility is expressed and explored in terms of an aporia of accountability: It is argued that accountability relies on responsibility but that the rendering of accountability tends to undermine responsibility. In seeking to make a positive contribution to the question of how accountability might contribute to raising levels of responsibility for the other, the wholly other, the paper critically builds on existing Levinasian perspectives on this question, and develops the suggestion, inspired by Derrida's work, that in appropriate circumstances the reconfiguring of accountability as testimony and as gift might help enhance responsibility.

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  • McKernan, John Francis, 2012. "Accountability as aporia, testimony, and gift," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 258-278.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:23:y:2012:i:3:p:258-278
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2011.12.009
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    13. Madeleine Besson & Philippe Jacquinot & Rémi Jardat & Jean-Luc Moriceau, 2023. "Escaping transparent, asymmetrical and agentive accountability? Entrepreneurial accounts and researchers' countertransference," Post-Print hal-04095968, HAL.
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    23. Kate Robinson & Bernard McKenna & David Rooney, 2022. "The Relationship of Risk to Rules, Values, Virtues, and Moral Complexity: What We can Learn from the Moral Struggles of Military Leaders," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(3), pages 749-766, September.
    24. Noemi Sinkovics & Rudolf R. Sinkovics & Jason Archie-Acheampong, 2021. "Small- and medium-sized enterprises and sustainable development: In the shadows of large lead firms in global value chains," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 80-101, March.
    25. Tweedie, Dale & Luzia, Karina, 2023. "In place, with power: (Re)conceptualising accountability in national non-government organisations," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

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