A Biosphere-immersive View of Accounting and Accountability

Accounting and accountability are activities that have consequences for the relationship between human societies and the biosphere. This article argues that a biosphere-immersive view of accounting and accountability offers an alternative to the mainstream accounting and economic views, as well as the poststructuralist/postmodernist view and a recent definition of accounting. The definition of accounting must incorporate important findings from ecological and green accountability research. Furthermore, it must deconstruct the overreaching influence of economics and the metaphysical status of money, where monetary flows are treated as the constitutive beings (ousia) of economic and societal activity. In the empirical status of money, monetary flows have no explanatory privilege over other flows connected to the biosphere. Accounting and accountability result in biosphere-immersive activities because they attend to how humans are related to their surrounding environment and other living beings. Accounting has ecological implications that must be considered in accounting research. A biosphere-immersive view of accounting and accountability can enhance socio-ecological perspectives. It can also help find theoretical alternatives to the dominant economic theory in mainstream accounting and economics and the relativism inherent to the poststructuralist/postmodernist research program.