ABSTRACT

Using a philosophical and interdisciplinary approach, this book looks at how accountability can provide solutions to our current environmental and global political problems. When a social system has external elements imposed upon it, or presented to it, political problems are likely to emerge. This book demonstrates that what is needed are connecting social elements with a natural affinity to bring people together despite their differences. 

This book is different from others in the field. It provides new insights by critiquing the extant understandings of accountability and expands the possibilities by building on Charles Taylor’s philosophies. Central to the argument of the book are perspectives on authenticity and expressivism which are found to provide a radical reworking of our understanding of being in the world, and a starting point for rethinking the way individuals and communities ought to be dealing politically with accountability and ecological crises. The argument builds to an accountability perspective that utilises work from interpretivism, liberalism, and postmodern theory. 

The book will be of interest to researchers in environmental philosophy, critical perspectives on accounting, corporate governance, corporate social reporting, and environmental accounting.

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

part I|107 pages

Critical accountability

chapter 4|21 pages

Postmodernism and interpretivism

Basic issues

chapter 6|17 pages

External relations

Re-engaging the company with the community in which it operates

part II|81 pages

Philosophical perspectives

chapter 7|18 pages

Basic concepts in accountability research

Key accountability theorists and issues 1

chapter 8|14 pages

Basic issues in accountability

Interpretivism, openness, and transparency 1

chapter 9|26 pages

Liberal accountability

Current environmental and social challenges and policy 1

chapter 10|21 pages

Critical and radical accounting and accountability

Basic philosophical issues in accountability research 1

part III|77 pages

The environment

chapter 13|10 pages

Perspectives on Deep Ecology

Basic issues

chapter 14|19 pages

Deep Ecology and interpretation

Social Ecology and how people relate to the world

chapter 15|24 pages

Perspectives on Nature

An environmental values perspective