IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/crpeac/v24y2013i3p211-224.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Critical reflections on Laughlin's middle range research approach: Language not mysterious?

Author

Listed:
  • Lehman, Glen

Abstract

Professor Richard Laughlin is renowned for applying critical insights from the German philosopher, Jurgen Habermas. His middle range research approach has explored many accounting problems such as public–private partnerships, health care reforms and how accounting impacts cultural issues. Laughlin's work re-conceptualises accountability in terms of cultural analysis, language and systems theory. Users of his work may encounter issues associated with: (1) understanding how to judge assertoric statements concerning various truth claims; (2) exploring the dichotomy between the secular and sacred; and (3) examining whether language simply designates meaning or opens us to interpretive new pathways.

Suggested Citation

  • Lehman, Glen, 2013. "Critical reflections on Laughlin's middle range research approach: Language not mysterious?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 211-224.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:24:y:2013:i:3:p:211-224
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2012.07.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235412000937
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.cpa.2012.07.003?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. Glen Lehman, 2010. "Interpretive accounting research," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3-4), pages 231-235, September.
    2. Richard Laughlin, 2008. "A Conceptual Framework for Accounting for Public-Benefit Entities," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 247-254, August.
    3. Shapiro, Brian P., 1997. "Objectivity, relativism, and truth in external financial reporting: What's really at stake in the disputes?," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 165-185, February.
    4. Jonsson, Sten & Macintosh, Norman B., 1997. "CATS, RATS, AND EARS: Making the case for ethnographic accounting research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(3-4), pages 367-386.
    5. Lehman, Glen, 1999. "Disclosing new worlds: a role for social and environmental accounting and auditing," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 217-241, April.
    6. Lehman, Glen, 2010. "Perspectives on accounting, commonalities & the public sphere," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(8), pages 724-738.
    7. Jane Broadbent & Richard Laughlin & Ghazwa Alwani-Starr, 2010. "Steering for Sustainability," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(4), pages 461-473, July.
    8. Rob Gray & Richard Laughlin, 2012. "It was 20 years ago today," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 25(2), pages 228-255, February.
    9. Linda M. English & James Guthrie & Jane Broadbent & Richard Laughlin, 2010. "Performance Audit of the Operational Stage of Long-Term Partnerships for the Private Sector Provision of Public Services," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 20(1), pages 64-75, March.
    10. Shapiro, B. P., 1998. "Toward a normative model of rational argumentation for critical accounting discussions," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 641-663, October.
    11. Richard Laughlin, 2012. "Debate: Accrual accounting: information for accountability or decision usefulness?," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 45-46, January.
    12. Richard Laughlin, 2010. "A comment on “Towards a paradigmatic foundation for accounting practice”," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(6), pages 759-763, August.
    13. Jane Broadbent & Carolyn Gallop & Richard Laughlin, 2010. "Analysing societal regulatory control systems with specific reference to higher education in England," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(4), pages 506-531, May.
    14. Schweiker, William, 1993. "Accounting for ourselves: Accounting practice and the discourse of ethics," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 18(2-3), pages 231-252, April.
    15. Laughlin, Richard, 2007. "Critical reflections on research approaches, accounting regulation and the regulation of accounting," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 271-289.
    16. Francis, Jere R., 1994. "Auditing, hermeneutics, and subjectivity," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 235-269, April.
    17. Laughlin, Richard C., 1987. "Accounting systems in organisational contexts: A case for critical theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(5), pages 479-502, August.
    18. Hines, Ruth D., 1988. "Financial accounting: In communicating reality, we construct reality," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 251-261, April.
    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. Lehman, Glen, 2010. "Interpretive accounting research," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 231-235.
    21. David L. Owen & Tracey Swift & Karen Hunt, 2001. "Questioning the Role of Stakeholder Engagement in Social and Ethical Accounting, Auditing and Reporting," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 264-282, September.
    22. Roberts, John, 1991. "The possibilities of accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 355-368.
    23. Power, Michael & Laughlin, Richard, 1996. "Habermas, law and accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 441-465, July.
    24. Gray, Rob, 2002. "The social accounting project and Accounting Organizations and Society Privileging engagement, imaginings, new accountings and pragmatism over critique?," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 687-708, October.
    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. Kuruppu, Sanjaya Chinthana & Lodhia, Sumit, 2019. "Disruption and transformation: The organisational evolution of an NGO," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    2. Rosanna Spanò & Adele Caldarelli & Luca Ferri & Marco Maffei, 2020. "Context, culture and control: a case study on accounting change in an Italian regional health service," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(1), pages 229-272, March.
    3. Tweedie, Dale, 2018. "After Habermas: Applying Axel Honneth’s critical theory in accounting research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 39-55.
    4. Francesca Manes-Rossi & Alessandra Allini & Rosanna Spanò & Riccardo Macchioni, 2018. "Performance management change in archaeological sites: The case of Herculaneum Conservation Project," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 22(4), pages 947-979, December.
    5. Lehman, Glen, 2017. "The language of environmental and social accounting research: The expression of beauty and truth," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 30-41.
    6. Lamberton, Geoffrey, 2015. "Accounting and happiness," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 16-30.

    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. Lehman, Glen, 2017. "The language of environmental and social accounting research: The expression of beauty and truth," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 30-41.
    2. Messner, Martin, 2009. "The limits of accountability," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 918-938, November.
    3. Lehman, Glen, 2010. "Perspectives on accounting, commonalities & the public sphere," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(8), pages 724-738.
    4. Irvine, Helen & Moerman, Lee, 2017. "Gambling with the public sphere: Accounting’s contribution to debate on social issues," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 35-52.
    5. Brown, Judy, 2009. "Democracy, sustainability and dialogic accounting technologies: Taking pluralism seriously," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 313-342.
    6. Thomas Johansen, 2008. "Employees and the Operation of Accountability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(2), pages 247-263, December.
    7. Unerman, Jeffrey & Bennett, Mark, 2004. "Increased stakeholder dialogue and the internet: towards greater corporate accountability or reinforcing capitalist hegemony?," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(7), pages 685-707, October.
    8. 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.
    9. Rodrigue, Michelle & Romi, Andrea M., 2022. "Environmental escalations to social inequities: Some reflections on the tumultuous state of Gaia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    10. Rosanna Spanò & Adele Caldarelli & Luca Ferri & Marco Maffei, 2020. "Context, culture and control: a case study on accounting change in an Italian regional health service," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 24(1), pages 229-272, March.
    11. Brown, Judy & Dillard, Jesse, 2013. "Critical accounting and communicative action: On the limits of consensual deliberation," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 176-190.
    12. Bayou, Mohamed E. & Reinstein, Alan & Williams, Paul F., 2011. "To tell the truth: A discussion of issues concerning truth and ethics in accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 109-124, February.
    13. Brown, Judy & Tregidga, Helen, 2017. "Re-politicizing social and environmental accounting through Rancière: On the value of dissensus," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1-21.
    14. Parker, Lee D., 2014. "Corporate social accountability through action: Contemporary insights from British industrial pioneers," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(8), pages 632-659.
    15. Kuruppu, Sanjaya & Lehman, Glen, 2018. "Commentary: A proposal for theoretical models of stakeholder perceptions of a new financial reporting system," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 167-169.
    16. Judy Brown & Michael Fraser, 2006. "Approaches and perspectives in social and environmental accounting: an overview of the conceptual landscape," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 103-117, March.
    17. Murphy, Tim & O’Connell, Vincent & Ó hÓgartaigh, Ciarán, 2013. "Discourses surrounding the evolution of the IASB/FASB Conceptual Framework: What they reveal about the “living law” of accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 72-91.
    18. Beck, Cornelia & Lehman, Glen, 2014. "On Gray, Malpas, and Brennan's “The role of social accounts: Situating political ideas”," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 291-295.
    19. Molisa, Pala, 2011. "A spiritual reflection on emancipation and accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 22(5), pages 453-484.
    20. Gray, Rob & Brennan, Andrew & Malpas, Jeff, 2014. "New accounts: Towards a reframing of social accounting," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 258-273.

    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:crpeac:v:24:y:2013:i:3:p:211-224. 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: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/critical-perspectives-on-accounting/ .

    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.