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Social Accounting for Inequality: Applying Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century

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  • Dale Tweedie
  • James Hazelton

Abstract

This essay reviews the potential of Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2014. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) to inform social accounting research into economic inequality. Economic inequality is conceptually central to social accounting agendas, yet there has been surprisingly little accounting research in this area. Piketty's text can help build this research agenda by providing a systematic account of the growth and structure of economic inequality, especially since his analysis follows a similar underlying approach to influential texts in social and environmental accounting research. At the same time, the essay argues that social accountants can address limitations of Piketty's analysis, particularly by offering a more nuanced analysis of how economic inequality is embedded in corporate structures and practices. Thus, Piketty's text is not only a timely reminder of why the social distribution of economic resources matters, but also an invitation for social accountants to engage more fully in unfolding public debates about the future of resource distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Dale Tweedie & James Hazelton, 2015. "Social Accounting for Inequality: Applying Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century," Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(2), pages 113-122, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:seaccj:v:35:y:2015:i:2:p:113-122
    DOI: 10.1080/0969160X.2015.1062788
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    Cited by:

    1. Baudot, Lisa & Dillard, Jesse & Pencle, Nadra, 2020. "The emergence of benefit corporations: A cautionary tale," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 67.
    2. Gerged, Ali Meftah & Almontaser, Tariq, 2021. "Corporate adoption of SDG reporting in a non-enabling institutional environment: Insights from Libyan oil industries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    3. Carmela Gulluscio & Pina Puntillo & Valerio Luciani & Donald Huisingh, 2020. "Climate Change Accounting and Reporting: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-31, July.
    4. 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.
    5. Axel Haller & Chris J. van Staden & Cristina Landis, 2018. "Value Added as part of Sustainability Reporting: Reporting on Distributional Fairness or Obfuscation?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(3), pages 763-781, October.

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