Non-accountants and Accounting: On the Emancipatory Mobilization of Accounting by Sustainability Managers

Our study explores emancipatory manifestations of accounting through the experiences of sustainability managers. Specifically, drawing primarily on interviews with sustainability managers working in Canadian companies, it aims to better understand how they mobilize conventional accounting in their day-to-day activities in pursuit of socio-environmental progress. Informed by the pragmatist perspective on emancipation (Gallhofer & Haslam, 2003, 2019), our analysis first reveals the global context in which our interviewees evolve and the aura of accounting therein. It then details how three local contextual dynamics shape the form, content, and usage of conventional accounting, making some accounting manifestations more emancipatory than others. Working in organizations receptive to sustainability initiatives, piloted by a small, resource-constrained department, seems to lead sustainability managers to generate more emancipatory progress in and through multiple forms, contents, and usages of accounting. The legitimacy of the sustainability department and the level of uncertainty experienced also play roles in the extent of progress reached. Through an empirical investigation, we contribute to a better understanding of accounting particularities shaping sustainability progress within organizations. Our study also offers valuable insights into the ways ‘non-accountants’ use accounting, therefore contributing to an understanding of how ‘peripheral’ business actors mobilize accounting to advance their sustainability agenda.