IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/aaajpp/v23y2010i5p671-698.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Congestion charging: a tale of two cities

Author

Listed:
  • Irvine Lapsley
  • Filippo Giordano

Abstract

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to add to understanding of how cities function. Specifically, through the lens of power relationships in political organisations, it seeks to study the manner in which accounting and politics are involved in the development of city transport strategies. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses a comparative case study approach in which documents and media coverage are key elements of the visualising of the city. Findings - The findings are on a number of levels. First, the study explains the efficacy of congestion charging systems. Second, in the politicised organisation of the city, the context in which policy makers sit is crucial in the elaboration of strategies. Third, the adoption of calculative practices such as congestion charging may reflect political rationality rather than actual need. Originality/value - The focus of the study has been cities – a neglected field, but one with considerable research potential. Second, the mobilisation of concepts of power, as articulated by Clegg, Flyvbjerg and Clegg, represent a novel contribution to the accounting literature.

Suggested Citation

  • Irvine Lapsley & Filippo Giordano, 2010. "Congestion charging: a tale of two cities," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(5), pages 671-698, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:aaajpp:v:23:y:2010:i:5:p:671-698
    DOI: 10.1108/09513571011054936
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09513571011054936/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09513571011054936/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/09513571011054936?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. Martin Kornberger & Chris Carter, 2010. "Manufacturing competition: how accounting practices shape strategy making in cities," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(3), pages 325-349, March.
    2. Stewart Clegg & David Courpasson & Nelson Phillips, 2006. "Power and organizations," Post-Print hal-02298067, HAL.
    3. Irvine Lapsley, 2009. "New Public Management: The Cruellest Invention of the Human Spirit?1," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 45(1), pages 1-21, March.
    4. Ryley, Tim & Gjersoe, Nathalia, 2006. "Newspaper response to the Edinburgh congestion charging proposals," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 66-73, January.
    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. Vonk Noordegraaf, Diana & Annema, Jan Anne & van Wee, Bert, 2014. "Policy implementation lessons from six road pricing cases," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 172-191.
    2. Chris Carter & Stewart Clegg & Martin Kornberger, 2010. "Re‐framing strategy: power, politics and accounting," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(5), pages 573-594, June.
    3. Alan McKinlay & Chris Carter & Eric Pezet & Stewart Clegg, 2010. "Using Foucault to make strategy," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(8), pages 1012-1031, October.

    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. Chris Carter & Stewart Clegg & Martin Kornberger, 2010. "Re‐framing strategy: power, politics and accounting," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(5), pages 573-594, June.
    2. Andrea Whittle & Frank Mueller, 2010. "Strategy, enrolment and accounting: the politics of strategic ideas," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(5), pages 626-646, June.
    3. Florian Becker-Ritterspach & Christoph Dörrenbächer, 2011. "An Organizational Politics Perspective on Intra-firm Competition in Multinational Corporations," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 533-559, August.
    4. Tóth, Balázs, 2021. "Milyen kapcsolatban állnak a közszféra reformjai a gazdaságpolitikai paradigmákkal? [How reforms of the public sector relate to the paradigms of economic policy]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 205-222.
    5. Vonk Noordegraaf, Diana & Annema, Jan Anne & van Wee, Bert, 2014. "Policy implementation lessons from six road pricing cases," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 172-191.
    6. Palermo, Tommaso, 2014. "Accountability and expertise in public sector risk management: a case study," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 59948, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Les Worrall & Kim Mather & Roger Seifert, 2010. "Solving the Labour Problem Among Professional Workers in the UK Public Sector: Organisation Change and Performance Management," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 117-137, June.
    8. Brendan Whitty & Jessica Sklair & Paul Robert Gilbert & Emma Mawdsley & Jo‐Anna Russon & Olivia Taylor, 2023. "Outsourcing the Business of Development: The Rise of For‐profit Consultancies in the UK Aid Sector," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(4), pages 892-917, July.
    9. Laurie Field, 2017. "Interest Differences and Organizational Learning," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-14, August.
    10. Pollock, Neil & D’Adderio, Luciana, 2012. "Give me a two-by-two matrix and I will create the market: Rankings, graphic visualisations and sociomateriality," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 565-586.
    11. B. Buylen & J. Christiaens, 2013. "Politics by numbers? An exploration of councillors’ apparent use of financial information during the budget discussion in Flemish municipal councils," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 13/841, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    12. Hamza El Kezazy & Yassine Hilmi, 2023. "Improving Good Governance Through Management Control in Local Authorities," Post-Print hal-04422229, HAL.
    13. Asad Aman, 2019. "Managing Internal Marketing Channel Conflict: A Proposal for Narrative Epistemology," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 20(4), pages 901-916, August.
    14. Heald, David & Steel, David, 2018. "The governance of public bodies in times of austerity," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 149-160.
    15. Rachael Pope, 2017. "The NHS: Sticking Fingers in Its Ears, Humming Loudly," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(3), pages 577-598, October.
    16. Guilherme Belloque & Martina K Linnenluecke & Mauricio Marrone & Abhay K Singh & Rui Xue, 2021. "55 years of Abacus: Evolution of Research Streams and Future Research Directions," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 57(3), pages 593-618, September.
    17. Martin Bortz, 2023. "Advice that resonates: explaining the variability in consultants’ policy influence," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 56(2), pages 211-232, June.
    18. Helin, Sven & Jensen, Tommy & Sandström, Johan & Clegg, Stewart, 2011. "On the dark side of codes: Domination not enlightenment," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 24-33, March.
    19. Cooper, Christine & Lapsley, Irvine, 2021. "Hillsborough: The fight for accountability," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    20. Karen Benson & Peter M Clarkson & Tom Smith & Irene Tutticci, 2015. "A review of accounting research in the Asia Pacific region," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 40(1), pages 36-88, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Politics; Cities; Case studies;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:eme:aaajpp:v:23:y:2010:i:5:p:671-698. 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: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.