Foucault

Knights, David and Bloom, Peter (2017) Foucault. In: The Routledge Companion to Critical Accounting :. Routledge, pp. 91-108. ISBN 9781138025257

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the work of Michel Foucault and his understanding of how power-knowledge relations constitute researchers as accounting, or more precisely “accountable”, subjects. Marxism stands as a traditional lens for critically viewing accounting. This perspective primarily studies accounting as part of the general reproduction of an exploitative capitalist system. Critical theory highlights the significance of accounting in the formation and reproduction of specific social values and identities that are instrumental to efficient performance, productivity and profitability within contemporary capitalist economies. Foucault highlights ethics as a process of “self-cultivation” that is representative of engaging the body and self in different ways. The accountable self reflects and reproduces contemporary forms of managerial control since the imperative to account for oneself, routinely becomes a demand to fulfill the prerogatives of the firm. Specifically, it strengthens the regulative power of managers at the same time as interpolating subjects into managerialist values of efficiency and productivity.