aaaj cover (i).qxd 30/04/2012 13:28 Page 1 ISSN 0951-3574 Volume 25Number 4 2012 Celebrating 25 years1988-2012 Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal Accounting and popular culture Guest Editor: Ingrid Jeacle www.emeraldinsight.com Accounting, Auditing & ISSN 0951-3574 Volume 25 Accountability Journal Number 4 2012 Accounting and popular culture Guest Editor Ingrid Jeacle Access this journal online _______________________________ 578 CONTENTS Editorial boards___________________________________________ 579 GUEST EDITORIAL Accounting and popular culture: framing a research agenda IngridJeacle ___________________________________________________ 580 Vulgate accountability: insights from the field of football Christine Cooper andJoanne Johnston ______________________________ 602 ‘‘How easy can the barley brie’’: drinking culture and accounting failure at the end of the nineteenth century in Britain William J. Jackson,Audrey S.Paterson,Christopher K.M. Pongand SimonaScarparo _______________________________________________ 635 Accounting and detective stories: an excursion to the USA in the 1940s BarbaraCzarniawska____________________________________________ 659 Constructing accounting in the mirror of popular music Kerry Jacobs andSteveEvans_____________________________________ 673 Jokes in popular culture: the characterisation of the accountant FrancesMiley andAndrew Read___________________________________ 703 Fashioning the popular masses: accounting as mediator between creativity and control IngridJeacle andChris Carter_____________________________________ 719 Thisjournalisamemberofand Call for nominations______________________________________ 752 subscribestotheprinciplesofthe CommitteeonPublicationEthics www.emeraldinsight.com/aaaj.htm Asasubscribertothisjournal,youcanbenefitfrominstant, Structuredabstracts electronicaccesstothistitleviaEmeraldManagementeJournals. 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Fax+44(0)1274785201 EXECUTIVEEDITORIAL ProfessorPaulCollier ProfessorKenMcPhail Editorial boards BOARD LaTrobeUniversity,Australia LaTrobeUniversity,Australia ProfessorDavidCollison ProfessorCherylMcWatters ProfessorAllanBarton UniversityofDundee,UK UniversityofOttawa,Canada TheAustralianNationalUniversity, Australia ProfessorChristineCooper DrAndreaMennicken UniversityofStrathclyde,UK LondonSchoolofEconomicsandPolitical PRMroIfTesUsnoirveGrsairtyr,yACuasrtrnaeligaie ProfessorRussellCraig Science,UK VictoriaUniversity,Australia ProfessorDrMartinMessner PUrnoivfeersssitoyroDfaAvlbiderCtao,oCpaenrada ProfessorSureshCuganesan UniversityofInnsbruck,Austria PCarrodfieffssUonrivMerashitym,oUuKdaEnzdzIaEmBeulsiness UPrnoivfeersssitoyroJfaSnyednDeayv,iAsuosntralia PGrriofffiethssUonrivLeorksimtya,nAuMstiraalia 579 School,Spain UniversityofLondon,UK ProfessorMarkusMilne ProfessorRobertGray AssociateProfessorSylvainDurocher UniversityofCanterbury,NewZealand StAndrewsUniversity,UK UniversityofOttawa,Canada ProfessorJanMouritsen ProfessorJohnHolland ProfessorLisaEvans CopenhagenBusinessSchool,Denmark UniversityofGlasgow,UK UniversityofStirling,UK ProfessorChristopherNapier ProfessorTrevorHopper EmeritusProfessorRichard RoyalHolloway,UniversityofLondon,UK UniversityofSussex,UK Fleischman ProfessorDeanNeu JohnCarrollUniversity,USA SchulichSchoolofBusiness,YorkUniversity, PUrnoivfeersssitoyroIfrvEidninebLuargphs,leUyK ProfessorMartinFreedman Canada TowsonUniversity,USA ProfessorHanneNorreklit PStroAfnedsrseowrsTUonmiveLrseiety,UK ProfessorWarwickFunnell UniversityofAarhus,Denmark UniversityofKent,UK ProfessorDerylNorthcott PUrnoivfeersssitoyroKfeSnountehtehrnMCearlicfhoranniat,USA PQruoeefnesMsoarrySUonnijvaerGsaitlylhooffLeorndon,UK TNheweAZueaclkalnadndUniversityofTechnology, POrsaokfeasCsiotyrHUnirivoesrhsiityO,kOasnaoka,Japan PUrnoivfeersssitoe´rLYavvaels,CGaennaddaron PMraocfqeusasroierGRriacdhuaartedSPcehtotoylofManagement, AssociateProfessorChrisPoullaos Sydney,Australia UniversityofSydney,Australia PUrnoivfeersssitoyroAfnSodurtehwamGpotodnd,aUrKd ProfessorPaoloQuattrone ProfessorRobertScapens InstitutodeEmpresaBusinessSchool,Spain UniversityofManchester,UK AYosrskocUinaitveerPsirtoyf,eCsasnoardaCameronGraham AssociateProfessorVaughanRadcliffe ProfessorTonyTinker UniversityofWesternOntario,Canada CityUniversityofNewYork,USA PDruorhfeamssoUrniJviemrsiHtya,sUlaKm ProfessorJohnRoberts UniversityofSydney,Australia EDITORIALADVISORY PUrnoivfeersssitoyroCfhDruisntdienee,UHKelliar ProfessorRobinRoslender BOARD UniversityofDundee,UK AssociateProfessorChungLaiHong ProfessorCarolAdams NanyangTechnologicalUniversity, ProfessorChristineRyan LaTrobeUniversity,Australia Singapore QueenslandUniversityofTechnology, Australia DrGloriaAgyemang ProfessorZahirulHoque RoyalHolloway,UniversityofLondon,UK LaTrobeUniversity,Australia ProfessorMassimoSargiacomo UniversityG.d’AnnunzioofChieti-Pescara, AssociateProfessorMarciaAnnisette ProfessorChristopherHumphrey Italy YorkUniversity,Canada UniversityofManchester,UK ProfessorStefanSchaltegger ProfessorRichardBaker ProfessorNoelHyndman LeuphanaUniversityofLu¨neburg,Germany AdelphiUniversity,USA Queen’sUniversity,UK ProfessorPremSikka ProfessorAmandaBall ProfessorHelenIrvine UniversityofEssex,UK UniversityofCanterbury,NewZealand QueenslandUniversityofTechnology, ProfessorVivienA.Beattie Australia PCorpoefnehsasgoernPBeutseirneSsksaSecrhboaole,kDenmark UniversityofGlasgow,UK DrIngridJeacle AssociateProfessorGordonBoyce TheUniversityofEdinburgh,UK PKrinogf’essCsoolrleJgiellLSonodloomn,oUnK LaTrobeUniversity,Australia ProfessorMikeJones ProfessorNiamhBrennan UniversityofBristol,UK AUnsisteodciAatreabPEromfiersatseosrUCnrivaewrsfiotryd,USApEence UniversityCollegeDublin,Ireland DrRaniaKamla ProfessorJohnBurns UniversityofDundee,UK PStrroafthecslsyodreIBaunsiTnehsosmScshoonol,UK ExeterUniversity,UK ProfessorLindaKirkham ProfessorRogerL.Burritt RobertGordonUniversity,UK PFlrinodfeersssoBrusCinaersoslSAch.oToli,ltFlindersUniversity, UniversityofSouthAustralia,Australia ProfessorKatsuhikoKokubu Australia ProfessorDavidCampbell KobeUniversity,Japan ProfessorMathewTsamenyi NewcastleUniversity,UK ProfessorKimLangfield-Smith UniversityofBirmingham,UK ProfessorTyroneCarlin MonashUniversity,Australia ProfessorStuartTurley UniversityofSydney,Australia ProfessorCarlosLarrinagaGonzalez UniversityofManchester,UK ProfessorSalvadorCarmona UniversidaddeBurgos,Spain ProfessorThomasTyson InstitutodeEmpresa,Spain ProfessorStewartLawrence StJohnFisherCollege,USA ProfessorNievesCarrera UniversityofWaikato,NewZealand ProfessorStephenWalker InstitutodeEmpresa,Spain ProfessorCherylLehman CardiffUniversity,UK DrMarkChristensen HofstraUniversity,USA ProfessorPaulineWeetman SouthernCrossUniversity,Australia AssociateProfessorMargaret UniversityofEdinburgh,UK Lightbody ANasnsyoacniagtTeePchronfoelosgsiocarlCUhnuivnegrsLitayi,Hong UniversityofSouthAustralia,Australia PNroortfhesCsaororliPnaauSltaWteilUlinaimvesrsity,USA Accounting,Auditing& Singapore ProfessorAlanLowe AccountabilityJournal, AstonUniversity,UK ProfessorJoniYoung Vol.25No.4,2012 UniversityofNewMexico,USA p.579 #EmeraldGroupPublishingLimited 0951-3574 Thecurrentissueandfulltextarchiveofthisjournalisavailableat www.emeraldinsight.com/0951-3574.htm AAAJ GUEST EDITORIAL 25,4 Accounting and popular culture: framing a research agenda 580 Ingrid Jeacle University of Edinburgh Business School, Edinburgh, UK Abstract Purpose–The objective of this paper is to recognize the richness in exploring the inter-linkages between accounting and popular culture. Such an investigation should reap returns in not only furthering an understanding of accounting, but also the ways and means in which notions of accountabilityandauditpermeateoureverydaylives.Inaddition,itattemptstocapturethesignificant transformativeinfluenceofaccounting,andcalculativepracticesmoregenerally,intheactualshaping ofthecontoursoftheculturalcontext.Finally,itbrieflyintroducesthesixpapersinthisAAAJspecial issue. Design/methodology/approach–Thepaperdrawsonliteraturefromthefieldsofbothaccounting andculturalstudiestosetoutatheoreticallyinformedframeworkforthefutureexaminationofthe myriadwaysinwhichaccountingisentwinedwiththepopular. Findings–Thepaperarguesacaseforthestudyofaccountingwithinthedomainofpopularculture, proposes two theoretical lenses from which to examine the inter-linkages between these two disciplines,andpresentsadiverserangeofresearchpossibilitiesforfurtherscholarlyinquiryinthe field. Originality/value–Traditionallyregardedastrivialandunworthyofacademicattention,research intotheregularritualsthatpervadetheeverydayisnowalegitimatefieldofscholarlyinquiryamong socialandculturaltheorists.Accountingresearchers,however,haveremainedrelativelyalooffrom thisgeneraltrend,preferringtoseeksolaceinthesphereofthecorporationratherthanthecoffeeshop. Thispaperisnovelinthatitattemptstobroadenthescopeofaccountingscholarshipintothenew domainofpopularculture. KeywordsAccountingandpopularculture,Auditsociety,Calculativepractices,Everydaylife, Governmentality,Popularculture,Accounting PapertypeConceptualpaper 1. Introduction:why study accounting and popularculture? The subject of popular culture has remained remarkably unexplored by accounting researchers.Thissituationpersistsdespitethecolossalcommercialsignificanceofthe field;thinkforexample,oftherevenuesgarneredfromrealitytelevisionshowssuchas Big Brother. Perhaps one of the rationales for such neglect is the aura of triviality which appears to surround the space populated by the popular. While now a recognised domain of intellectual pursuit (Schudson, 1987), popular culture initially suffered from a distinctly downbeat reputation. The very components of popular culturewereblatantlylowbrow,thepursuitsofthemasses.Thisperception,ofcourse, Accounting,Auditing &AccountabilityJournal TheauthorwouldliketothanktheEditorsofAAAJ,JamesGuthrieandLee Parker,fortheir Vol.25No.4,2012 pp.580-601 support and encouragement of this special issue. In addition, it is important to record an qEmeraldGroupPublishingLimited appreciationfortheinsightfulcontributionstothefieldmadebythecontributingauthorsofthe 0951-3574 DOI10.1108/09513571211225051 issue.Thevaluablecommentsofthereviewersofthispaperarealsogratefullyacknowledged. wastoultimatelyactinfavourofthefield:thepowerofthepopularandtheritualsof Accounting and the everyday could no longer be ignored by social theorists as the “obscure popular culture background of social activity” (de Certeau, 1984, p. xi). Accounting scholars though, seem to have been immune to this general trend, preferring to pervade the locales of traditional elites rather than populate the popular. They have remained resolutely within the camp of the tried and tested, postulating within the production arena, pervading the professional bodies, and articulating over the latest accounting 581 standard.Itisasifaccountingresearchisnotviewedasvalidunlessitengageswith the bastions of business, but all the while ignoring the business of everyday life (Hopwood, 1994). It is perhaps no coincidence that the accounting community’s domainsofinquiryhavealsobeenarchetypicalmalestompinggrounds;thegendered historyoftheaccountingprofessionhasbeen welldocumented,whilemanufacturing hasalwaysbeenregardedasthemasculineantithesistothefeminineofconsumption. Itisperhapsnotsurprisingtherefore,thatsuchscholarswouldavoidtheoftenovertly female connotations of many popular culture pursuits (Modleski, 1986). Thisisnotinanywaytodenigratethescholarlyachievementsofthosewhohave workedwithintheseterrains,nortocriticisetheirchoiceofresearchfield.Rather,the purpose of these observations is merely to register a site of potential neglect and fathomastowhythatmaybeso.ThedeliberationsofMiller(1998)canbeinsightful here. Miller (1998) has suggested that accounting is most interesting at the margins, those boundaries where accounting begins to permeate other disciplines and other disciplines begin to enrol accounting. From this perspective, the domain of popular culture can be currently regarded as lurking on the marginsof accounting, while the traditions of manufacturing accounting, professions and standard setting, effectively the“highculture”ofaccounting,haveheldthecentreground.Whileundoubtedlythe centre ground of accounting, indeed of any discipline, needs to be defended and protected,itissurelyvitalthatthisisdoneinsuchamannerthatleavesspacefornew territoriestobeexploredandwhichalsorecognisesthatthecentregrounditselfcanbe pronetomovement.Themarginstoocanchangesuchthatthatwhichwasonceonthe marginsmaymovetoamorecentralposition.Accounting,likeeverydaylife“invents itselfbypoachingincountlesswaysonthepropertyofothers”(deCerteau,1984,p.xii). Consequently,afieldofknowledgeprogressesthroughboththeappreciationofvalued traditionsandthe courage to venture into new domains. The editors of AAAJ are acutely aware of such a tension and the importance of provocatively pushing the boundaries of their discipline. As their 2009 editorial proudlyproclaims: Weareaboutopeningupnewfieldsofinquiry,addressingneglectedissues,consolidatingthe fieldsAAAJhaspioneered,challengingthestatusquo,employinginnovativemethodologies, experimentingwiththenovelandtakingrisks.Watchthisspace!(ParkerandGuthrie,2009, p.12). It is quite fitting then that early explorations of accounting’s interlinkages with the relatively novel domain of popular culture are housed within a special issue of their journal.Itreflectsthededicationoftheeditorstopracticewhattheypreach,totakethe risk of launching new arenas of academic inquiry. This is important because it providestheplatform,notonlyforaccountingscholarstopopulatepopularculture,but also for us to tell our colleagues across the social sciences something about popular culture itself for achange. AAAJ Onefairlyobviousmeansbywhichweasacommunityofaccountingscholarscan 25,4 engage with this new realm of research is through the study of accounting practice within a site of popular culture. For example, the examination of accounting’s operationwithinacafe´,gymortabloidnewsroomisausefulwayinwhichtoexpand the territorial scope of accounting scholarship. However, accounting scholars should not be content to simply narrate accounting’s role within these contexts. In other 582 words,itisimportantnottoconfineourselvestomerelyrecountingthepracticesinuse withintheenvironsofpopularculture.Rather,thefocusshouldtrytobeonteasingout the way in whichthese practices actually shape popular culture. We should pose the question:doesthiscalculativepracticeinfluencethewayinwhichthisparticularritual ofpopularcultureisconducted?Does,forexample,accountingmould,shapeorsustain therhythmbywhichweengagewiththisinstanceofpopularculture?Theadoptionof such a perspective allows the researcher to not only understand the practice of accountingwithintherealmofthepopular,butmoreimportantly,toattempttocapture the significant transformative influence of accounting and calculative practices more generally. Itisthislatterlinkagewhichholdsthekeytoexpandingthescopeofourdiscipline within the broader social science community. For several decades now, since the seminalworkofHopwood(1983)andMiller(1994),accountingscholarshaveembraced awiderangeofknowledgedomains,oftengoingfarbeyondtheir traditionalcomfort zone in the process. As a community of scholars, we have excavated the fields of history, sociology and philosophy in a quest to fully embrace the social and organizational context of our own discipline. However, understanding accounting withinitssocialandorganizationalcontextworksbothways.Itrecognisestheimpact of the social and organizational on the way in which accounting has developed and operates, but equally, it acknowledges the significance which accounting in turn can haveontheshapingofthatwidercontext.Yet,wehavenot,withtheexceptionofafew instances, been totally convincing in this latter quest. We have not made the big statementswithregardtothepowerandinfluenceofourowndiscipline.Wehavenot hadtheconfidencetocreaterippleswithinthesocialsciencecommunity.Wehavebeen modest in our outpourings, humble in our horizons. Perhaps our hesitancy in this regard is not surprising. Accounting is a field of scholarship traditionally steeped in professional practice. We have only recently found the tools, let alone the voice, to interrogate the craft of accounting beyond the terrain of the technical. The negative nuances of the boring bookkeeper may also have pre-empted any grand postulations with regard to our theoreticalpotential. However,thetidehasstartedtoturn.Wearebeginningtowitnessanawakeningof interestinaccountingbyscholarsbeyonditsimmediatedomain(Chapmanetal.,2009). Social science has suddenly sought out accounting. This then is perhaps both the ultimatechallenge,andaccolade,foraccountingresearch.Toconvertthedisbelieving, or better, the indifferent, to our cause confirms the credibility of our field and constitutes the crowning glory of recent decades of scholarship. More importantly, it acknowledges that which we have known and sought to establish: in the minutia of calculative practices and rigorous record keeping that constitute accounting lie powerfultransformativeeffects.Itisthecontentionofthiseditorialthatthedomainof popularcultureismostaptlysuitedtoevidencingtheseeffects.Thisisadomainwhich hosts the rituals that regulate the everyday lives of the masses. If accounting can be shown to shape the contours of such a context, then surely its potency is at its most Accounting and persuasive. popular culture TheobjectiveofthisAAAJspecialissueisnotsimplytoreviewthepaperswhich followbutalsotoprovidesometentativedirectionastotheshapeandcontentwhich futureresearchinthefieldofaccountingandpopularculturemaytake,inotherwords toframearesearchagenda.Tothisend,sectiontwoofthispaperattemptstodelineate thephenomenonofpopularcultureandunderstandsomeofthehistoricallysignificant 583 movementswithinitsemergenceasabodyofresearch.Thiscontextualframeworkis an essential step to engaging with any new field of knowledge. Following this consideration of what constitutes popular culture, section three suggests two theoreticallenseswhichmayproveusefulforaccountingscholarsinthestudyofthis domain. Section four comprises a discussion of possible topics of inquiry from the exhaustive,andcontinuallyevolving,fieldthatcomprisespopularculture.Concluding commentsonthethemeofaccountingandpopularculturearecontainedwithinsection five. 2.What is popular culture? Asaconcept,thereisnodenyingthatpopularcultureis“elusive”(Fiske,1989,p.45), difficult to define and historically hazy in its origins. Nonetheless, there seems some consensusthatthephenomenonthatwecurrentlyrecogniseaspopularculturehasits roots in the early folk culture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (Burke, 1994). This was a period when the pastimes of peasants and craftsmen, the non-elite,becameasourceofintellectualattention(Burke,1994,p.3).Thisgoldenage of folk culture manifested itself in a new German vocabulary of folk (volk) which soughttocapturethefolktalesandfolksongsofthepeople(Burke,1994).Itwasanera markedbyacleardistinctionbetweenthecultureofthepeopleandtheartandliterary culture of the elites (Strinati, 2004). Theadventoftheindustrialrevolution perhapsinevitably resultedinthedeathof this particular manifestation of folk culture (Burke, 1994). The process of industrialisation, however, brought about changes to the fabric of society which would generate new cultural insights (Strinati, 2004). Among those proferrings on offer, the musings of mass culture theorists such as Leavis (1933) and MacDonald (1957) helped to explain how, without the old ties of village, church and family, individuals of industrialized societies become autonomous entities. In other words, without the comfort of familiar frameworks, the populace turns to mass culture as a surrogate;theywillinglybecomethepassiveconsumersofthestandardisedproducts of the industrial profit making process. In this manner, mass culture is seen as something which is produced and disseminated from the top down. This is an essentially structuralist view of popular culture (Storey, 2003). It is not surprising that those aligned to the mass culture perspective exhibit concerns regarding the dangers that it poses. For example, if one ascribes to mass culture it inevitably entails viewing the world’s citizens as a manipulated and intellectually weak minded mass. This has obvious consequences for the survival of highculturalpursuitsasthemassesareperceivedaslackinginthenecessaryintellect ortastetoperceiveanydifferencebetweenthetwocultures(Leavis,1933).Fortunately perhaps, there is an alternative viewpoint to the negativity inherent within the mass culture thesis. The cultural debate has moved on to embrace a form of cultural AAAJ populismwhichinterpretspopularcultureinanaltogetherdifferentlight.Forexample, 25,4 Fiske(1989)completelyrejectsthedoomedforecastsofthemassculturetheorists.Itis simply not possible, he argues, to categorise the majority of the population as a homogenous, uncritical mass who are easily and readily duped by a capitalist force. “Popular culture, therefore, is not the culture of the subdued” (Fiske, 1989, p. 169). Consequently, argues Fiske (1989), the study of popular culture should focus on the 584 locales of resistance, the creative forces that arise to contest attempts by the cultural industries to dominate. Such investigation positions popular culture in a far from passivelightandrevelsinthecreativesubculturesthatspringuptoresistandevade dominant systems. Fiske (1989, p. 18) provides the example of the popular craze in ripped jeans as an illustration of how subcultures responded to the commodification process. CulturalpopulismalsosuggeststhatthepopularityofAmericancultureshouldbea focus for scholarly inquiry and interpretation, rather than merely a phenomenon to blindlyrailagainst(Strinati,2004).Itisperhapsnotsurprisingthatthosealarmedby thehandofmassculture,viewAmerica,thepublicfaceofcapitalism,asathreattothe preservationofeliteculturalpursuits(Webster,1988).However,asHallandWhannel (1964) argue, there is “good” popular culture and “bad” popular culture, and consequentlyenergiesshouldbefocusedondiscriminatingbetweenformsofpopular culture rather than simply critiquing an entire cultural field. Fromthe1970s,thefieldofpopularculturehasbeenheavilyinfluencedbyinsights from Gramsci’s (1971) work. Gramsci, who comes from within the Marxist tradition, developed the concept of hegemony to explain the politics of popular culture. Hegemonyreferstotheprocesswherebyaconsensusisformedbetweenthedominant and subordinategroupings within asociety. ForGramsci,popularcultureandthemassmediaareplaceswherehegemonyisproduced, reproduced and transformed; they are institutions of civil society which involve cultural productionandconsumption(Strinati,2004,p.151). Fromthisperspective,popularcultureisseenneitherastheoutcomeoftheimposition ofexploitativecapitalistsforces,norassimplythefolkinspiredvoicefrombelow,but rather as a compromise equilibrium (Storey, 2003). The Gramscian approach is associatedwiththeBritishculturalstudiesmovement,amovementwhoseinstitutional home was founded in 1964 with the establishment of the Centre for Contemporary CulturalStudiesattheUniversityofBirmingham(Storey,2009,p.23).Hoggart’s(1990) thesis on the British working class roots of popular culture and Hall’s (1980) pronouncementsontelevisiondiscoursehavebeenparticularlyinfluentialwithinthis domain. Inmorerecentyears,however,apostmodernistagendahasalsobecomeprevalent within thepopularculture debate. Thisstance recognises thepowerofthemedianot only as a means by which popular culture is disseminated, but also through which producers and consumers of popular culture attempt to signify or communicate meaning (Barthes, 1973). Given its role in constructing reality, postmodern theorists viewthemedia,ratherthantheclassicalnarrativesofclass,genderandreligionasthe newbasisfromwhichtomakesenseofcontemporarylife(Harvey,1989;Lash,1990). Thegrowthandinfluenceofthemediaisevenseenasreframingrelationshipsbetween highandlowcultures,blurringthetraditionalboundariesbetweenthepopularandthe elite.Considerforexample,howclassicalmusicbecomesspreadaroundthemassesvia Accounting and “the best of” compilations (The Polity Press Staff, 1994). In such a context, the popular culture functionality of art becomes confused. “Does art simply become the new, serious, complexandinterestingendofpopularculture?”(McRobbie,1999,p.17).Inaddition, astheworldgetssmaller,throughinnovationsintravelandtechnology,sotheglobal intrudesonthelocal(Harvey,1989).Inthismanner,therefore,popularcultureneedsto be understoodfromwithin an inherently global context (Storey, 2003). 585 Regardless of the changing tides in the interpretation of popular culture, as one voice within the “multiple discourses” (Hall, 1992, p. 278) that make up culturally studies more generally, popular culture is currently, at least, a particularly popular component. AsStorey (2009, p. xvi) has recentlyobserved: ... although cultural studies cannot (and should not) be reduced to the study of popular culture,itiscertainlythecasethatthestudyofpopularcultureiscentraltotheprojectof culturalstudies. Asafieldofresearchitisespeciallyattractivetoyoungresearchers(McRobbie,2005) andhasincreasinglycreatedaspaceforwomentheorists(Rakow,1986).Intermsofthe specifics as to what constitutes as popular culture within contemporary society, it is futile, and even unhelpful, to attempt to delineate that which falls under its ever-evolving domain. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this paper, it is useful to at least attempt to consider some of the most obvious forms of popular culture and the mannerinwhichtheymaybeentwinedwithaccounting.Beforesuchanundertaking however, the next section postulates two possible theoretical frameworks for understandingthelinkagesbetweenthemicroprocessesofaccountingwiththemacro phenomenon of the popular. 3.Howto study accounting and popular culture Everyscholarhastheirownwaysandmeansofconductingresearch,theirownbiases and perspectives. Consequently, we can engage with the theme of accounting and popular culture in a myriad of differing ways, drawing on an array of divergent theoretical perspectives and investigating a host of alternate empirical scenarios. Neitheristheconceptofpopularculturetimespecific,eachtimeframehavingitsown populist agendas. However, notwithstanding the above positioning, this section presents two frameworks which may prove particularly useful for investigating the linkages between accounting and popular culture. The rationale behind such a selectionis perhapsbest leftuntilthe principles of each has beenoutlined. 3.1TheGovernmentalitythesis “Governmentalitystudies”isthecollectivetermforafieldofresearchinitiatedbyPeter MillerandNikolasRosesome20yearsago.Indeed,suchhasbeenthesignificanceof Miller and Rose’s theoretical arguments that the body of work that now constitutes governmentality researchembracesabroadand diverse spectrum ofdisciplines.The development of this field can be traced back to the publication of their seminal work “Governing economic life” in 1990. In this paper, the authors attempt to understand politicalpower,inparticular,thewayinwhichsocialauthoritiesincreasinglyappearto actonandinterveneinthelivesofindividuals.TheydrawonFoucault’s(1991)concept of government to assist them in this undertaking. Foucault used the term