Post-modern accounting?
Society is immanently pluralistic in the post-modern perspective. Any attempt to create an unambiguous order will be met by resistance by those whose interests are not taken into account by this order. This resistance must be overcome in order to create and sustain society. Objects such as texts and numeric representations play an important role in this process since they may be seen as indisputable and immutable representations of reality. Financial statements may be seen as such objects within the business sphere. Financial statements give the many interested parties a “true and fair view” of a company’s economic position. The precondition for this is that financial statements are considered an objective representation of reality and that an independent audit may verify this. However, it is argued that financial statements may be seen as a social construction and that this ontology will spread in post-modern society. The article discusses whether accounting as an institution can survive this development and what consequences development may have on the way society is organised.
