Attributing consequences to accountancy: Pacific insights

Type of content
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Department of Accounting and Information Systems
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2009
Authors
Dixon, K.
Gaffikin, M.
Abstract

Purpose – The question is addressed of how types of consequences of accounting can be identified and classified. In doing so, an analysis is conducted of consequences for Kain Nikunau (i.e. indigenous persons of Nikunau Island) that have some association with the accounting brought from the Atlantic to the Pacific by I-Matang (i.e. indigenous persons of Europe, in particular being fair-skinned). Design/methodology/approach – We adopt an eclectic approach; use historical sources and participant-observation data; compose an analytical description of consequences of accounting for the last several generations of Kain Nikunau; and discuss the findings in order to enhance the present literature about consequences of accounting. Findings – Human application of I-Matang accounting ideas and practices, figuring even mundanely and unobtrusively in various activities and situations (e.g. trade, mining and wage employment, Christian missions and churches, formal education, medical care and other public services, development planning and bi-lateral aid, and colonial and island government), have caused or formed conditions of possibility for wide-ranging and far-reaching changes on Nikunau and to Kain Nikunau. These changes are consequences of accounting and may be classified as biological, cultural, demographic, distributional, environmental, geographic, macro- and micro-economic, organisational, political, religious, social and societal. The desirability and undesirability of these consequences are ambiguous. Identifying and classifying these consequences is an analytical inductive process requiring taking several perspectives, applying lateral thinking and examining a field of inquiry longitudinally. Research limitations/implications – The research group did not include any Kain Nikunau.

Description
Citation
Dixon, K., Gaffikin, M. (2009) Attributing consequences to accountancy: Pacific insights. University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand: 8th Australasian Conference on Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR), 6-8 Dec 2009.
Keywords
consequences of accounting, social consequences, economic consequences, Pacific studies, demographic consequences, Pacific studies, demographic consequences
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Field of Research::15 - Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services::1501 - Accounting, Auditing and Accountability
Field of Research::16 - Studies in Human Society::1699 - Other Studies in Human Society::169905 - Studies of Pacific Peoples' Societies
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