The Critique of Accounting Theory

In previous papers (Gaffikin 2005a, 2005b, 2005c, 2006) the discussion has examined accounting as a science, with attempts to employ a scientific methodology; as a purely technical expression of economic theory, heavily dominated by research in finance; and as part of “law”, albeit law (regulation) heavily influenced by dominant economic and political ideology. That discussion revealed that all these perspectives have suffered from severe shortcomings. Fortunately, there are other perspectives on accounting which may prove more fruitful and some of these will be discussed in this paper. A common element in many of these alternatives approaches is to view accounting as a social science.