Accounting in institutional comics under authoritarian rule: towards a hegemonic discourse

This study analyses how accounting was mobilised by Petrobras in an attempt to construct a hegemonic discourse through its comics published in 1967 and 1968, during the Brazilian military dictatorship. Drawing on Laclau and Mouffe's (2015a) theoretical framework, the analysis enables an understanding of the social as discursively constructed. This approach allows for the deconstruction of seemingly neutral signifiers such as “Brazilian oil” and reveals how accounting contributed to the production of a discursive dynamic of belonging and symbolic exclusion. The findings highlight the apparent neutrality, consensus-building capacity, and rationalising and legitimising role of accounting in supporting and preserving the status quo. The simplicity of the language used in the comics rendered accounting intelligible, allowing it to permeate and shape everyday life, thereby helping to cement the foundations of a hegemonic project aimed at suppressing alternative worldviews and naturalising a single perspective: that of Petrobras and the regime. This study expands the boundaries of critical accounting by examining marginalised cultural artefacts, contributing to the literature on accounting and popular culture, and deepening the application of Laclau and Mouffe's ideas to the analysis of discursive practices in authoritarian contexts of the Global South.