Bringing back Charlie Chaplin: Accounting as catalyst in the creation of an authentic product of popular culture

This paper examines the role of calculative practices in the creation of the Charlie Chaplin museum, a multiparty cultural project with the mission to ‘bring back’ the great entertainer in an ‘authentic’ and commercially viable way. As with many other cultural organizations, there are multiple parties with competing and even conflicting objectives, leading to disagreement not only about the final objectives but also about the evaluative principles that would guide the parties towards consensus and productive action. Previous research in such settings has commonly portrayed accounting as a mediating practice which helps reconcile the dilemma between commerce and culture. We put forward accounting as a catalyzing – rather than compromising – factor in producing cultural goods. We develop this claim by examining the transformative power of calculative practices during the creation of the Chaplin museum.