Social and Environmental Accounting and Reporting: From Ridicule to Revolution? From Hope to Hubris? - A Personal Review of the Field* 1 2

Abstract

The objective of this essay is to provide a coherent overview of author’s research and scholar
ship over the last two decades or so. As such it is a compromise between a revisionist history, 
an auto-critique and a review essay. This compromise arises, primarily, for two reasons. First, 
the work I have undertaken in developing social accounting has often been ad hoc and prag
matic; it certainly has not followed a carefully crafted master plan or research design.  Sec
ondly, the work is heavily context dependent. Issues such as personal history, changing atti
tudes in politics, business and the profession, the development of the author’s understandings 
and, interaction with colleagues have all had major influence on the research. Some of the work 
may only make sense when seen in those contexts.