Constructivism and accounting research: towards a trans‐disciplinary perspective

This paper speculates about the potential of the constructivism of Piaget and Morin to offer a framework which might go beyond dualisms and fragmentation in accounting research. These, it is argued, are because inter‐disciplinary research is still embedded in a hierarchical organization of human knowledge (“Encyclopaedia”). In pursuing this aim, this paper seeks to reformulate the subject‐matter of accounting in the trans‐disciplinary terms of the “knowledge of knowledge”. Such a theoretical framework will introduce the issues of trans‐disciplinarity, evolution and reflexivity into accounting research. Such issues have already been the concern of other disciplines within and outside the field of managerial studies, providing new insights for understanding organizational problems. However, they have not yet been given enough attention within accounting research.