“A war waged with numbers”: Accounting and accumulation by alienation in Australia’s border industrial complex

Type of content
Journal Article
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
Emerald
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
en
Date
2023
Authors
Scobie, Matthew
Laird L
Abstract

This paper explores the role of accounting and accountability techniques in contributing to Australia’s border industrial complex. Design/methodology/approach: We use the political thought of Behrouz Boochani to explore the role that accounting techniques play at the micro and macro level of his dialectic of alienation and freedom. Firstly, we explore the accounting and accountability techniques detailed in Boochani’s No Friend but the Mountain, which gives an account of his life in Manus Prison, and the accounting techniques he experienced. Secondly, we explore the discourse of alienation created within the annual reporting of the Australian Federal Government regarding the border industrial complex. Findings: We argue that the border industrial complex requires the alienation of asylum seekers from their own humanity for capital accumulation, and that accounting and accountability techniques facilitate this form of alienation. These techniques include inventorying, logging and queuing at the micro level within Manus Prison. This alienates those trapped in the system from one another and themselves. Techniques also include annual reporting at a macro level which alienates those trapped in the system from the (White) “Australian Community”. However, these techniques are resisted at every point by assertions of freedom. Originality/value: We illustrate the role of accounting in accumulation by alienation, where the unfreedom of incarcerated asylum seekers is a site of profit for vested interests. But also that this alienation is resisted at every point by refusals of alienation as assertions of freedom. Thus, this study contributes to the accounting literature by drawing from theories of alienation, and putting forward the dialectic of alienation and freedom articulated by Boochani and collaborators.

Description
Citation
Scobie M, Laird L (2023). “A war waged with numbers”: Accounting and accumulation by alienation in Australia’s border industrial complex. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.
Keywords
Borders, Accounting and migration, Accumulation by alienation
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
35 - Commerce, management, tourism and services::3501 - Accounting, auditing and accountability::350199 - Accounting, auditing and accountability not elsewhere classified
44 - Human society::4408 - Political science::440801 - Australian government and politics
44 - Human society::4408 - Political science::440811 - Political theory and political philosophy
44 - Human society::4410 - Sociology::441013 - Sociology of migration, ethnicity and multiculturalism
44 - Human society::4407 - Policy and administration::440708 - Public administration
Rights
All rights reserved unless otherwise stated