Introduction A response to, ‘ Reflections on the Critical Accounting Movement The reaction.pdf

A response to, ‘ Reflections on the Critical Accounting Movement: The reactions of a cultural conservative’ Lesley Catchpowle University of Greenwich Introduction In recent years there has been a growth in critical research as an alternative to mainstream research in traditional accounting. Increasingly critical methodology, emphasising a more holistic treatment of social phenomena within a broader societal context, has begun to attract attention; so much so that even culturally conservative academics now feel compelled to make an assessment of this movement. The following is a response to the comments made in the paper, ‘Reflections on the Critical Accounting Movement’. The reply does not attempt to address all the points made by the original Author, only those considered being central to his/her argument. Moreover, I have tended to concentrate on those comments directed towards Marxist methodology, as this is the ideology most closely associated with my own. The author begins - correctly in my opinion – by identifying the ideological base of Critical Accountancy (C.A) to be critical social theory. It’s useful to get a definition of what social theory is, as this is never really spelt out in the article. By critical social theory I assuming the author means an ideology that traditionally seeks to understand society as a whole, as opposed to its very different and separate forms. Such an understanding distinguishes between, and makes generalizations about different kinds of society, and is concerned in particular to analyse modernity - the forms of social life which have come to prevail first in the West and then the rest of the world. More directly such a theory presupposes a grand narrative, with Marx, Weber and Durkheim being regarded as major social theorists. Of late though, the definition has undergone a shift with t