Purpose – A reply to Tony Tinker's paper, “ The withering of criticism” . Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs argument and discourse to critique Tinker's paper and defend the author's position. Findings – The paper shows how oddly our work has been represented, and that...

In the UK, the accountancy profession plays an important and influential role in the audit and regulation of economic and social affairs. Although an increasing amount of interest is currently being taken in the role of accounting and auditing in society, comparatively little attention has been...

Amplifies and addresses a number of issues raised by Gray (1992) in his review of the Fabian paper Accounting for Change: Proposals for Reform of Audit and Accounting . It explores the terrain of self‐reflection where the accounting academic struggles with the question of what it may mean in...

Reviews recent developments in new accounting research (NAR). Gives particular attention to recent empirical research within this perspective and uses the metaphor of (in)visibility to explore the distinctive nature of accounting as a set of social practices. Argues that much recent research...

Explores contributions to the process of organizing the interests of professional labour through a study of the debate on the governance of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. The Tricker and Wersley Reports have illuminated the tensions and contradictions associated...

In the UK and elsewhere, accounting vocabularies and practices have come to permeate everyday life through their involvement in the management of hospitals, schools, universities, charities, trade unions, etc. This has been accompanied by an increase in the power of accountancy and the...

The article is the response to a reply to the authors′ earlier article (in this journal) criticising the UK audit standard‐setting process. The reply claimed the article failed to prevent a balanced review of the “due process”, was not clear as to what constitutes “public interest”,...

During the last decade, several financial initiatives aimed at “reforming” the public sector in the UK have been produced by the Government. These initiatives seek to supplant historically established bureaucratic modes of governance, underpinned by a public service ethic, by market‐based...