IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/aosoci/v89y2021ics0361368220300817.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Possibilities and limits of social accountability: The consequences of visibility as recognition and exposure in refugee crises

Author

Listed:
  • Frey-Heger, Corinna
  • Barrett, Michael

Abstract

This paper examines the possibilities and limits of social accountability, characterized by face-to-face interactions between organizational actors and beneficiary others. We explore how social accountability is produced in and through visibility relations which recognize or may expose the other. We examine the consequences of such changing visibility relations on social accountability in two case studies of acute and chronic refugee crisis in Rwanda. Our study contributes to ongoing debates on accountability and the implications for responsible action towards the other. We argue that social accountability initially presents a way to recognize the other as valid and entitled to assistance, which spurs an important sense of responsibility. Prolonged exposure to social accountability, however, continuously reinforces the other as ‘in need’, which becomes a burden for the exposed as well as for the exposing actor in their response to a situation. We argue that exposure risks organizational actors developing a rather myopic perception of others’ needs, to the extent of becoming irresponsible in their action towards the other. We conclude the paper with reflections on the importance of proper distance for social accountability and outline the potential of our findings to inspire future work on social accountability and visibility relations in other organizational settings.

Suggested Citation

  • Frey-Heger, Corinna & Barrett, Michael, 2021. "Possibilities and limits of social accountability: The consequences of visibility as recognition and exposure in refugee crises," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:89:y:2021:i:c:s0361368220300817
    DOI: 10.1016/j.aos.2020.101197
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361368220300817
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.aos.2020.101197?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. O'Dwyer, Brendan & Unerman, Jeffrey, 2008. "The paradox of greater NGO accountability: A case study of Amnesty Ireland," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(7-8), pages 801-824.
    2. Taylor, Dennis & Tharapos, Meredith & Sidaway, Shannon, 2014. "Downward accountability for a natural disaster recovery effort: Evidence and issues from Australia's Black Saturday," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(7), pages 633-651.
    3. Vinnari, Eija & Laine, Matias, 2017. "The moral mechanism of counter accounts: The case of industrial animal production," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-17.
    4. Sargiacomo, Massimo, 2015. "Earthquakes, exceptional government and extraordinary accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 67-89.
    5. Brendan O'Dwyer & Roel Boomsma, 2015. "The co-construction of NGO accountability," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(1), pages 36-68, January.
    6. Joannides, Vassili, 2012. "Accounterability and the problematics of accountability," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 244-257.
    7. Roberts, John, 2018. "Managing only with transparency: The strategic functions of ignorance," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 53-60.
    8. Bryer, Alice Rose, 2014. "Participation in budgeting: A critical anthropological approach," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 511-530.
    9. Foroughi, K. & Barnard, C. R. & Bennett, R.W. & Clay, D. K. & Conway, E. L. & Corfield, S. R. & Coughlan, A. J. & Harrison, J. S. & Hibbett, G. J. & Kendix, I. V. & Lanari-Boisclair, M. & O’ Brien, , 2012. "Insurance accounting: a new era?," British Actuarial Journal, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(3), pages 562-615, September.
    10. Sekhar, Late R.C. & Rajagopalan, A.V., 2012. "Management Accounting," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195683608.
    11. Roberts, John & Scapens, Robert, 1985. "Accounting systems and systems of accountability -- understanding accounting practices in their organisational contexts," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 10(4), pages 443-456, October.
    12. Brendan O'Dwyer & Jeffrey Unerman, 2007. "From functional to social accountability," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 20(3), pages 446-471, June.
    13. Baker, C. Richard, 2014. "Breakdowns of accountability in the face of natural disasters: The case of Hurricane Katrina," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(7), pages 620-632.
    14. Goodall, Keith & Roberts, John, 2003. "Only connect: teamwork in the multinational," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 150-164, May.
    15. Roberts, John, 2009. "No one is perfect: The limits of transparency and an ethic for 'intelligent' accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 957-970, November.
    16. Brendan O'Dwyer & Jeffrey Unerman, 2010. "Enhancing the role of accountability in promoting the rights of beneficiaries of development NGOs," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(5), pages 451-471.
    17. Barrett, Michael & Cooper, David J. & Jamal, Karim, 2005. "Globalization and the coordinating of work in multinational audits," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 1-24, January.
    18. Brown, Judy, 2009. "Democracy, sustainability and dialogic accounting technologies: Taking pluralism seriously," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 313-342.
    19. Shearer, Teri, 2002. "Ethics and accountability: from the for-itself to the for-the-other," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 541-573, August.
    20. Martin Messner, 2009. "The Limits of Accountability," Post-Print hal-00486747, HAL.
    21. Roberts, John, 2001. "Corporate Governance and the Ethics of Narcissus," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 109-127, January.
    22. Vassili Joannides, 2012. "Accounterability and the problematics of accountability," Post-Print hal-00676561, HAL.
    23. McKernan, John Francis, 2012. "Accountability as aporia, testimony, and gift," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 258-278.
    24. Barulina E.V & Barulina M.S, 2012. "Issues Of Managerial Accounting Methodology," European Journal of Business and Economics, Central Bohemia University, vol. 4(0), pages 9-141:4, September.
    25. Gil Kim & Lian An & Yoonbai Kim, 2012. "The behaviour of the real exchange rate and current account," Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(2), pages 139-160, December.
    26. Godwin Awio & Deryl Northcott & Stewart Lawrence, 2011. "Social capital and accountability in grass‐roots NGOs," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(1), pages 63-92, January.
    27. Boomsma, Roel & O'Dwyer, Brendan, 2019. "Constituting the governable NGO: The correlation between conduct and counter-conduct in the evolution of funder-NGO accountability relations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-20.
    28. Yasmin, Sofia & Ghafran, Chaudhry, 2019. "The problematics of accountability: Internal responses to external pressures in exposed organisations," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    29. Sargiacomo, Massimo & Ianni, Luca & Everett, Jeff, 2014. "Accounting for suffering: Calculative practices in the field of disaster relief," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(7), pages 652-669.
    30. Vassili Joannides, 2012. "Accounterability and the problematics of accountability," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-00676561, HAL.
    31. Karl Widerquist, 2012. "Citizens’ Capital Accounts: A Proposal," Exploring the Basic Income Guarantee, in: Karl Widerquist & Michael W. Howard (ed.), Exporting the Alaska Model, chapter 0, pages 183-203, Palgrave Macmillan.
    32. Everett, Jeff & Friesen, Constance, 2010. "Humanitarian accountability and performance in the Théâtre de l’Absurde," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 468-485.
    33. Messner, Martin, 2009. "The limits of accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 918-938, November.
    34. Roberts, John, 1991. "The possibilities of accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 355-368.
    35. Davison, Jane, 2014. "Visual rhetoric and the case of intellectual capital," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 20-37.
    36. Jayasinghe, Kelum & Wickramasinghe, Danture, 2011. "Power over empowerment: Encountering development accounting in a Sri Lankan fishing village," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 396-414.
    37. Martinez, Daniel E., 2011. "Beyond disciplinary enclosures: Management control in the society of control," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 200-211.
    38. Joseph P.H. Fan & T.J. Wong & Tianyu Zhang, 2012. "Founder Succession and Accounting Properties," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 283-311, March.
    39. Georg Dettmann & Jochen Möbert & Christian Weistroffer, 2012. "Bilateral current account rebalancing in the EMU," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 47(4), pages 257-264, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ahmed, Zahir Uddin & Hopper, Trevor & Wickramasinghe, Danture, 2023. "From Minnow to Mighty: A hegemonic analysis of social accountability in BRAC - the world’s largest development NGO," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    2. 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.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. O’Leary, Susan, 2017. "Grassroots accountability promises in rights-based approaches to development: The role of transformative monitoring and evaluation in NGOs," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 21-41.
    2. Yasmin, Sofia & Ghafran, Chaudhry, 2019. "The problematics of accountability: Internal responses to external pressures in exposed organisations," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    3. Favotto, Alvise & McKernan, John Francis & Zou, Yanru, 2022. "Speculative accountability for animal kinship," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    4. Lai, Alessandro & Leoni, Giulia & Stacchezzini, Riccardo, 2014. "The socializing effects of accounting in flood recovery," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(7), pages 579-603.
    5. 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).
    6. Gottlieb, Uliana & Johed, Gustav & Hansson, Helena, 2022. "Accounting and accountability for farm animals: Conceptual limits and the possibilities of caring," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    7. Mutiganda, Jean Claude, 2013. "Budgetary governance and accountability in public sector organisations: An institutional and critical realism approach," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 518-531.
    8. Dewi, Miranti Kartika & Manochin, Melina & Belal, Ataur, 2021. "Towards a conceptual framework of beneficiary accountability by NGOs: An Indonesian case study," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    9. Dillard, Jesse & Vinnari, Eija, 2019. "Critical dialogical accountability: From accounting-based accountability to accountability-based accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 16-38.
    10. Ballantine, Joan & Kelly, Martin & Larres, Patricia, 2020. "Banking for the common good: A Lonerganian perspective," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 67.
    11. Girei, Emanuela, 2023. "Managerialisation, accountability and everyday resistance in the NGO sector: Whose interests matter?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    12. Pesci, Caterina & Costa, Ericka & Andreaus, Michele, 2020. "Using accountability to shape the common good," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 67.
    13. Goddard, Andrew, 2021. "Accountability and accounting in the NGO field comprising the UK and Africa – A Bordieusian analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    14. Amanda Keddie, 2021. "NGOs working for gender justice with boys and men: Exploring challenges of accountability," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 1461-1474, July.
    15. Junne, Jaromir, 2018. "Enabling accountability: An analysis of personal budgets for disabled people," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 46-62.
    16. Ahmed, Zahir Uddin & Hopper, Trevor & Wickramasinghe, Danture, 2023. "From Minnow to Mighty: A hegemonic analysis of social accountability in BRAC - the world’s largest development NGO," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    17. Rana, Tarek & Hoque, Zahirul, 2020. "Institutionalising multiple accountability logics in public services: Insights from Australia," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(4).
    18. Kingston, Kylie L. & Luke, Belinda & Furneaux, Craig & Alderman, Lyn, 2023. "Examining the re-territorialisation of beneficiary accountability: Digitising nonprofit services in response to COVID-19," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(5).
    19. Alexandra Rausch & Alexander Brauneis, 2015. "It’s about how the task is set: the inclusion–exclusion effect and accountability in preprocessing management information," Central European Journal of Operations Research, Springer;Slovak Society for Operations Research;Hungarian Operational Research Society;Czech Society for Operations Research;Österr. Gesellschaft für Operations Research (ÖGOR);Slovenian Society Informatika - Section for Operational Research;Croatian Operational Research Society, vol. 23(2), pages 313-344, June.
    20. Victoria Pagan & Kathryn Haynes & Stefanie Reissner, 2023. "Accountable Selves and Responsibility Within a Global Forum," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(2), pages 255-270, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:aosoci:v:89:y:2021:i:c:s0361368220300817. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/aos .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.