Critical Reflections on Laughlin’s ‘middle range research approach’: Language not mysterious?

Professor Richard Laughlin is renowned for applying critical insights from the German philosopher, Jurgen Habermas. His middle-range work 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 separation between the secular and sacred: and (3) examining whether language simply designates meaning or opens us to interpretive new pathways.