Adam Smith Business School

Dr Massimo Contrafatto, University of Sussex

"Accounting and Sustainable Change in the Anthropocene: A stewardship perspective"
Wednesday, 17 January 2024. 10:30-12:30
Room 282, Hot House, Adam Smith Business School

Abstract

In the Sustainability Accounting and Accountability Literature (SAL) increasing attention has been given to the potential and actual role of accounting to enable sustainable transformation in the current ways of organizing business and society (Gray, 2002; Contrafatto & Burns, 2013). More recently, the notion of Anthropocene has been proposed to denote a relatively new perspective to observe and understand sustainability, sustainable transformation and accounting for sustainability (Bebbington and Larrinaga, 2014; Bebbington et al., 2021).

Anthropocene, which has emerged from longstanding concerns about the state of the physical and ecological environment, is used to describe a new geological epoch that is characterized by humanly driven wide effects on the ecological and natural systems. As observed by Bebbington et al., (2021), while traditional sustainability practices, policy and scholarship has been mainly concerned about examining how societies and business can be organized to ensure socially fair and ecological sound development, Anthropocene’s main focus is on the nature and functioning of the earth’s system and related interlocked ecological and socio-economic systems of which business and organizations are part of (Bebbington et al., 2021). Thus, Anthropocene takes debates about sustainable development into a new phase and provides an alternative perspective for understanding sustainability and realizing sustainable transformations. As sustained by Olsson et al., (2017), Anthropocene poses challenges but also opportunities to re-imagine research in management, accounting and finance. In particular, this requires accounting and accountability scholarship to go beyond its traditional focus, when examining “Sustainable Change in the context of Anthropocene”, by attending new questions, issues and problems and by offering innovative answers/solutions to these. For instance, as suggested by Bebbington et al., (2021), this means to examine, among others, the issues related to the “responsibilities” which emerge out of Anthropocene: what are the responsibilities? How can be these conceptualized? How can we account and control these responsibilities? What is (or should be) the role of “accounting”? It may be argued that new theoretical perspectives are required to examine these questions. Stewardship could provide a strong normative and explanatory framework to address these questions and to attend the complex issues which emerge from conceptualizing accounting and sustainable transformation in the context of Anthropocene.

Stewardship is a notion that has motivated several organizations whose mission is to protect and enhance different natural, social and cultural resources for the benefit of communities, society at large and environment (Contrafatto & Bebbington, 2012). In general, stewardship is a potent concept which has resonance with current policy agenda that (at the macro and more organizationally focused levels), attend to global issues such as sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and accountability (Bebbington et al., 2021).

The present paper draws on a prolonged engagement, which involved action research and fieldwork, with Falkland Centre for Stewardship (FCS), a value-based organization operating in Scotland. Data and information were gathered through semi-structured interviews with individuals who worked within the case study organization; analysis of public available information; participation in workshops and seminars organized by FCS; observations made in the field during the engagement; photos and video; and post project reflections. Reflecting on these empirics, this essay intends to offer “appreciative reflections” (Bebbington et al., 2017, p. 22) to address some of the Anthropocene-related challenges, with the hope that these reflections might eventually offer useful insights in respect to decision- and policy-making for a sustainable society and business.

Bio

Dr Massimo Contrafatto is a Reader in Accounting for Sustainability at the Department of Accounting and Finance of the University of Sussex (UK), where he is Director of the PhD Programme.

Massimo previously worked as Associate Professor in Accounting and Accountability at the Department of Management of the University of Bergamo (Italy). He held Visiting Professorships at the Schools of Business of the University of Glasgow Strathclyde (UK) and University of Dundee (UK), where he is still an Honorary Senior Fellow. Massimo holds a PhD in Business Administration, with a specialisation in Accounting for Sustainability, at the University of Milan-Bicocca (Italy). During his PhD he spent over two years as visiting PhD researcher at the University of Glasgow (UK), where he conducted research with the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR).

Massimo is a member of the Executive Council of CSEAR and Director of CSEAR Italy. His main research interests are in accounting for sustainability; accountability and stewardship; institutional theory; accounting and organisational change; and accounting for risk-management. He has carried out extensive research on these topics employing a range of methodologies, including qualitative fieldworks, in several organizations: multinationals, social enterprises, co-operatives and foundations. Massimo has published several articles in international journals such as Accounting, Organization and Society (AOS), Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ), Management Accounting Research (MAR), Critical Perspective on Accounting (CPA) and Social and Environmental Accountability Journal (SEAJ) as well as books and chapters in international edited books.

In addition, Massimo is Associate Editor for Sustainability, Management and Policy Journal (SAMPJ) and sits in the Editorial Boards of several international journals, such as: Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ); Accounting Forum (AF); Accounting and the Public Interest (API); and Social and Environmental Accountability Journal (SEAJ).

Finally, Massimo is currently carrying out research projects with international colleagues of prestigious institutions: for example, University of St. Andrews (Scotland), London Royal Holloway University, University of Newcastle (UK), University of Dundee (UK), University of Trento (Italy) and University Autonoma of Madrid (Spain) and University of Seville (Spain).

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For further information, please contact business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk

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First published: 19 December 2023