Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Christopher J. Napier
University of Southampton
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
In his pioneering history Accounting Evolution to 1900, A. C.
to this ultimate end may not be a direct one, which suggests that
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“progressive”) or move away from the end (they are in that sense
idealism, ready to believe that accounting can and does change for
Keenan (1998) has pointed out, this criticism may itself be open
1990: 1168). This definition brings out the two central aspects
the middle of the French Revolution set out his Sketch for a
the world has increased, and still increases, the real wealth, the
with Kant and Hegel. In his essay “An Idea for a Universal
proposed that:
some ideal state was developed by Hegel, who saw progress as being
history”.
example, the world of classical Greece and Rome with the age of
valid cultural starting and end points” (Fukuyama 1992: 69). With
contested.
solves more and “weightier” problems than the other, then the
claims that:
This means that new theories are capable of solving not only the
problems within the later theories, not in the sense that they are
theories). This move may not be very satisfactory, but the idea
accounting.
Graham points out in his book The Shape of the Past (1997),
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believe about the past, and about whether or not the observer
would hold the same view at any time in the past. This
prefer to live, and in addition the observer would have held this
still believe that for any time in the past there is a later time
when he or she would prefer to live, but this view could not be
previous cycle, and the worst position is also better than the
environment may give rise to new problems that call forth in some
also Napier 1987: 244) but rather will wish to demonstrate how the
was to claim that evolution was simply the mechanism by which the
seen as driving the world towards some desired end point (it is
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necessary to see how the concept of progress and its more recent
did Max Weber among others, to “the ways in which particular forms
and UK, than in countries where not only the way in which business
for.
World War I.
in the computer era – but also because the nature of the problem
Mumford (1979) noted that the various stages in the growth and
late 1940s. He put forward his cyclical model “as a blueprint for
the next surge of inflation” (Mumford 1979: 98), and also in part
users.
to evolution.
enough to show how several such historians say very little about
the current state of affairs at the time they were writing. Thus
accounting through the eyes and pens of historians” (Lee & Parker
“better” than most times in the past, they contend that “few of
often many decades old, and no nearer solution today than they
history. We can observe this view being expressed right from the
the time the first version of their paper (Miller & Napier 1990)
the one hand and accounting change on the other, and vague on how
accounting fed back to help shape society, does not mean that all
Hopwood (1985), Cyril Tomkins set out his view of the development
the twentieth century may have been overdone: “We need to ask
NARRATIVES OF PROGRESS
Within the study of history more generally, one of the most
has already examined this debate at some length, and what follows
view that:
forward, most notably by Hayden White, that the content and the
and satire. In the romance, the hero of the story triumphs over
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triumphs: “in the final analysis, human consciousness and will are
Comedy and tragedy, on the other hand, hold out some hope of at
least provisional victory over the world, the difference being the
form that this victory takes. In comedy “hope is held out for the
Still, the fall of the protagonist and the shaking of the world he
sets out the various attempts at addressing the problem, and ends
his personal point of view, but they change, not necessarily for
organisation’s practices.
tale” from which readers today (and indeed observers in the past)
difficulty. There is, though, a hope that those reading the book
will draw lessons from it and change their costing methods to more
extent to which DCF was actually adopted, and the extent to which
economic growth, were not the point of his paper, which was to
outlook, but perhaps the time has come to be less nervous about
historical evidence.
the extent that these functions remain static that we can sensibly
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that what is progress for some may be degeneration for others, and
what appears progressive at one point of time may not seem so with
improvement,8 and the extent to which these are taken for granted.
oblivion.
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NOTES
1
As Carr observes in a footnote, this passage appears in the context of a discussion of the
collapse of the western Roman empire. Carr stresses that Gibbon was not being ironic in this
paean to progress.
2
There is nothing necessary about the extent to which the formulation of a particular problem –
its “problematisation” – and the ways in which solutions to the particular problem are pursued
– “programmes” – admits or includes accounting (Miller, 1991). Why certain issues are seen at
particular points in time as problems of accounting is a legitimate area of historical enquiry.
3
This has been derided as the “after Pacioli, nothing” theory of history by Zan (1994: 296).
4
The Nobes (1991) study has been criticised by Skerratt & Whittington (1992), who argue that
the cyclical model is both underdetermined theoretically and non-descriptive empirically.
5
The approach of Jones & Aiken (1995) has been challenged by several writers, among them
Maltby (1999), who asserts bluntly that “accounting does not ‘evolve’ ”.
6
A copy of this paper was provided to me by Anthony Hopwood in 1985.
7
These are borrowed from the work of the American literary theorist Northrop Frye (1957).
8
An issue addressed by Miller & O’Leary (1987), in their discussion of how projects of national
efficienc y, aiming to improve the life of the individual, and through this the nation, involved
innovations in human accounting through processes of standard costing.
REFERENCES
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Standards for External Financial Reports, Statement on
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Accounting Association.
Armstrong, P. (1994). The influence of Michel Foucault on
accounting research. Critical Perspectives on accounting,
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Berkofer, R. F., Jr. (1995). Beyond the Great Story: History as
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Harvard University Press.
Bowler, P. J. (1989). The Invention of Progress: The Victorians
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Bromwich, M. & Bhimani, A. (1989). Management Accounting:
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Burns, R. M. & Rayment-Pickard, H. (2000). Philosophies of
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Blackwell.
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