Sociology of Calculation Bibliography
See also Economic
sociology and Social
Studies of Finance Network. Page updated on March 31, 2006
Download EndNote library
WEINER, C. (2005): "The Impact of Industry Classification
Schemes on Financial Research," Collaborative Research Center
649, Humboldt University, Berlin.
This paper investigates industry classification systems. During
the last 50 years there has been a considerable discussion of problems
regarding the classification of economic data by industries. From
my perspective, the central point of each classification is to determine
a balance between aggregation of similar firms and differentiation
between industries. This paper examines the structure and content
of industrial classification schemes and how they affect financial
research. I use classification systems provided by the Worldscope
and the Compustat database. First, this study gives a detailed description
of the structure and methodology of industrial classification systems
and the relevance in leading finance and accounting journals. Second,
I construct a benchmark classification system to measure the performance
of different systems and provide evidence that some systems a more
homogeneous in terms of value drivers than others. Third, I examine
how multiple valuation is influenced by industry classification and
show that the results vary significantly for different systems.
http://ideas.repec.org/p/hum/wpaper/sfb649dp2005-062.html
SVERDRUP, U. (2005): "Administering Information: Eurostat
and Statistical Integration," ARENA.
This chapter analyses the processes and dynamics of institution
building in the European Union (EU). While most studies of EU institution
building have dealt with the birth and evolution of key institutions,
such as the legislatives, the executives or the courts, the focus
is here on a different aspect of democratic governance: the informational
foundation of the EU. The chapter examines developments and changes
in the organization of numerical information in the EU, in particular
the role of Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Commission.
How and to what extent can we observe the emergence of a pan- European
informational system? How and to what extent has the European information
system in Europe interacted and worked together with national statistical
institutes?
http://ideas.repec.org/p/erp/arenax/p0207.html
KALTHOFF, H. (2005): "Practices of Calculation: Economic
Representations and Risk Management," Theory Culture Society,
22, 69-97. As recent studies in economic and financial sociology
have underscored, calculation is central to economic practices.
While some sociological accounts locate the performance of calculation
within individual ability, networks of human agents or their cultural
embeddedness, studies operating on the background of the sociology
of (scientific) knowledge conceive of calculation as situated in
the practice of the participants engaged, the technological tools
used and their requirements. The article explores this point further,
using a distinction which can be traced back to Heidegger's notion
of Gestell (enframing): the calculation of something' and the calculation
with something' are analysed taking the practices of risk management
departments of big international banks as an example. It is argued
that, through the use of calculation tools, the corporate clients
are constituted anew and that written documents which are the outcome
of this process constitute a social prosthesis for remote communication
taking place between subsidiaries and the headquarters of international
banks. http://tcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/2/69
CRONIN, B. (2005): The Hand of Science : Academic Writing and
Its Rewards. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press.
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip052/2004024303.html
CALLON, M., and F. MUNIESA (2005): "Peripheral Vision:
Economic Markets as Calculative Collective Devices," Organization
Studies, 26, 1229-1250. How to address empirically the calculative
character of markets without dissolving it? In our paper, we propose
a theoretical framework that helps to deal with markets without
suspending their calculative properties. In the first section,
we construct a broad definition of calculation, grounded on the
anthropology of science and techniques. In the next sections, we
apply this definition to three constitutive elements of markets:
economic goods, economic agents and economic exchanges. First,
we examine the question of the calculability of goods: in order
to be calculated, goods must be calculable. In the following section,
we introduce the notion of calculative distributed agencies to
understand how these calculable goods are actually calculated.
Thirdly, we consider the rules and material devices that organize
the encounter between (and aggregation of) individual supplies
and demands, i.e. the specific organizations that allow for a calculated
exchange and a market output. Those three elements define concrete
markets as collective organized devices that calculate compromises
on the values of goods. In each, we encounter different versions
of our broad definition of calculation, which we illustrate with
examples, mainly taken from the fields of financial markets and
mass retail.
QUATTRONE, P. (2004): "Accounting for God: Accounting and
Accountability Practices in the Society of Jesus (Italy, Xvi-Xvii
Centuries)," Accounting, Organizations and Society, 29, 647. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VCK-4C6KPXH-1/2/ecca126378b89e1fb6c56ea6414c4795
POWER, M. (2004): "Counting, Control and Calculation: Reflections
on Measuring and Management," Human Relations, 57, 765-783.
This article explores fundamental issues in performance measurement
systems broadly conceived. Three key moments or themes are identified.
First, the foundations of measurement in counting practices, and
their inherent reductionism, are considered. Second, the relations
between measurement and technologies of monitoring and control,
such as auditing, are discussed. Third, first- and second-order
measurement (meta-measurement) are distinguished, respectively
as particular institutions of counting and data production, and
as related dense networks of calculating experts operating on these
numbers within specific cultures of objectivity. Finally, arguments
about the consequences of performance measurement systems are evaluated,
contrasting democratic enthusiasm for performance measurement control
technologies with the view that they are some kind of ‘fatal
remedy’. In place of a simple dichotomy of trust
or distrust in numbers, the development of performance measurement
instruments is argued to be a cycle of innovation, crisis and reform,
which continually expands into new regions of social and economic
life, and which expresses varying degrees of commitment to precision.
MARTIN, A. (2004): "Can't Any Body Count? Counting as an
Epistemic Theme in the History of Human Chromosomes," Social
Studies of Science, 34, 923-948. This paper examines the well-known
'error' in the history of human chromosome counting. In the early
1920s, T.S. Painter, supported by a number of independent investigators,
placed the count at 48, which was to hold as a fact for more than
30 years. In 1956, Tjio & Levan surprisingly revised the count
to 46. The details of the case are used to open up the very practice
of counting to theoretical scrutiny. Counting, often taken-for-granted
as mundane & transparent, is instead a richly contingent activity
entailing categorical judgments & individuation of objects.
Inverting the assumption that entities are there in the world waiting
to be counted, I propose that particular objects are constituted
as such while they are counted. As the chromosome story demonstrates,
the techniques, theories, disciplines, & the things themselves
co-evolve through practices of counting. Between the 1920s & the
1950s every one of these factors was in flux in the field of human
genetics; it should be no surprise that the number of chromosomes
changed. 2 Figures, 69 References. [Reprinted by permission of
Sage Publications Ltd., copyright 2004.].
FINEMAN, S. (2004): "Getting the Measure of Emotion - and
the Cautionary Tale of Emotional Intelligence," Human Relations,
57, 719-740. This article examines critically the recent growth
of emotion measurement in organizational behaviour. The epistemological
and phenomenological consequences of psychometrically ‘boxing’ emotion
are, it is argued, problematic and restrictive. This may be seen
in the power and professional prestige it affords to the measurers
and in the consequences to those classified by measurement. This
is particularly so when an emotion is presented as key to personal
or organizational success. Emotional intelligence is a strong illustration
of these issues, where ‘experts’ ascribe
positive value to people with high emotional intelligence quotients
(EQ), and low EQs are regarded as suitable cases for training.
How can emotion be ‘known’ other
than through measurement and numbers? The article suggests some
different approaches towards researching an important, but enigmatic,
concept.
FELDMAN, S. P. (2004): "The Culture of Objectivity: Quantification,
Uncertainty, and the Evaluation of Risk at Nasa," Human Relations,
57, 691-718. For over three decades social studies of science have
investigated ‘objectivity’ as
a central, socially constructed assumption in scientific and engineering
work. This literature has seldom been utilized in the study of
organizations despite the fact that knowledge production and knowledge
use in scientific and engineering organizations are presumed to
be objective or independent of individual and social influences.
In this article, the social studies of science literature as it
conceptualizes and understands objectivity is reviewed. An analysis
of the data on decision-making at the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration (NASA) during the years preceding the explosion
of Challenger is carried out using concepts from this literature.
Data on decision-making at NASA during the years preceding the
explosion of Columbia are also analyzed. It is shown that the culture
of objectivity at NASA interacted with time pressures to produce
a misunderstanding of flight risk. This misunderstanding resulted
from two general aspects of NASA’s culture:
(i) an over-confidence in quantitative data went hand-in-hand with
a marginalization of nonquantifiable data, leading to an insensitivity
to uncertainty and a loss of organizational memory; and (ii) problem
definition and solution creation were constructed as if they were
independent of organizational goals, resulting in an inaccurate
estimation of risk.
DANIEL, B., and S. DAVID (2004): "Tools of the Trade: The
Socio-Technology of Arbitrage in a Wall Street Trading Room," Industrial
and Corporate Change, 13, 369. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?did=642100221&Fmt=7&clientId=15386&RQT=309&VName=PQD
DéJEAN, F. D. R., J.-P. GOND, and B. LECA (2004): "Measuring
the Unmeasured: An Institutional Entrepreneur Strategy in an Emerging
Industry," Human Relations, 57, 741-764. The organizational
literature on emerging industries has emphasized the need for institutional
entrepreneurs - actors who give the new activity legitimacy and
determine its patterns of behaviour. However, little empirical
research has been carried out on the strategies that institutional
entrepreneurs employ in order to achieve legitimacy for their activity.
In this article, we suggest that an institutional entrepreneur
can use the development of measurement tools as a strategy to develop
its own legitimacy and power. By looking at a French entrepreneurial
company’s development of tools to measure corporate
social performance, we analyse how measurement tools influence
the legitimacy of an industry and the systemic power within it.
Finally, we discuss the implications of our findings for research
into measurement tools in the areas of management or business and
society.
BALLAS, A. A., and H. TSOUKAS (2004): "Measuring Nothing:
The Case of the Greek National Health System," Human Relations,
57, 661-690. Several critical studies in accounting have approached
the introduction of accounting systems in the public sector in
terms of enforcing and sustaining competition-based resource allocation
mechanisms. In this study, we reverse the question and ask: why
has accounting not been used in certain public bureaucracies as
much as it might? We investigate the extent to which accounting
systems have been used in the management of the Greek National
Health System (ESY) and find that accounting has played a marginal
role in its development. Attempting to explain this puzzling feature
we first note and then contrast the main underlying features of
accounting systems with those of the Greek political system in
general, and ESY in particular. Briefly, our explanation is that
the historically high politicization that has characterized the
Greek political system has tended to over-shadow the economic-cum-managerial
dimension of running public bureaucracies, favouring overtly political
evaluation criteria of organizational and individual performance.
In such an institutional environment, accounting has low symbolic
significance and its use does not contribute to enhancing organizational
legitimacy - hence its marginal role.
VOLLMER, H. (2003): "Bookkeeping, Accounting, Calculative
Practice: The Sociological Suspense of Calculation," Critical
Perspectives on Accounting, 14, 353. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6WD4-481MHV4-8/2/c62e851a0e3992bbceca6b45f3478448
POWER, M. (2003): "The Invention of Operational Risk," Centre
for Analysis of Risk and Regulation.
http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/CARR/pdf/Disspaper16.pdf
MACKENZIE, D., and Y. MILLO (2003): "Constructing a Market,
Performing Theory: The Historical Sociology of a Financial Derivatives
Exchange," American Journal of Sociology, 109, 107. This analysis
of the history of the Chicago Board Options Exchange explores the
performativity of economics, a theme in economic sociology recently
developed by Callon. Economics was crucial to the creation of financial
derivatives exchanges: it helped remedy the drastic loss of legitimacy
suffered by derivatives in the first half of the 20th century.
Option pricing theory—a "crown jewel" of
neoclassical economics—succeeded empirically
not because it discovered preexisting price patterns but because
markets changed in ways that made its assumptions more accurate
and because the theory was used in arbitrage. The performativity
of economics, however, has limits, and an emphasis on it needs
to be combined with classic themes in economic sociology, such
as Granovetterian embedding and the way in which exchanges can
be cultures and moral communities in which collective action problems
can be solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=11652037
MACKENZIE, D. (2003): "An Equation and Its Worlds: Bricolage,
Exemplars, Disunity and Performativity in Financial Economics," Social
Studies of Science, 33, 831-868. This paper describes & analyses
the history of the fundamental equation of modern financial economics:
the Black-Scholes (or Black-Scholes-Merton) option pricing equation.
In that history, several themes of potentially general importance
are revealed. First, the key mathematical work was not rule-following
but bricolage, creative tinkering. Second, it was, however, bricolage
guided by the goal of finding a solution to the problem of option
pricing analogous to existing exemplary solutions, notably the
Capital Asset Pricing Model, which had successfully been applied
to stock prices. Third, the central strands of work on option pricing,
although all recognizably 'orthodox' economics, were not unitary.
There was significant theoretical disagreement amongst the pioneers
of option pricing theory; this disagreement, paradoxically, turns
out to be a strength of the theory. Fourth, option pricing theory
has been performative. Rather than simply describing a pre-existing
empirical state of affairs, it altered the world, in general in
a way that made itself more true. 2 Tables, 2 Figures, 134 References.
[Copyright 2003 Sage Publications Ltd.].
BRUSZT, L., and D. STARK (2003): "Who Counts? Supranational
Norms and Societal Needs," East European Politics and Societies,
17, 74-82.
10.1177/0888325402239685
MENNICKEN, A. (2002): "Bringing Calculation Back In: Sociological
Studies in Accounting," Economic Sociology, European Electronic
Newsletter, 3, 1-7. http://econsoc.mpifg.de/archive/esjune02.pdf
KALTHOFF, H. (2002): "Figures, Writing and Calculation:
Thoughts on the Representation of Economic Practices," Economic
Sociology, European Electronic Newsletter, 3, 28-39. http://econsoc.mpifg.de/archive/esjune02.pdf
CETINA, K. K., and U. BRUEGGER (2002): "Global Microstructures:
The Virtual Societies of Financial Markets," American Journal
of Sociology, 107, 905. Using participant-observation data, interviews,
and trading transcripts drawn from interbank currency trading in
global investment banks, this article examines regular patterns
of integration that characterize the global social system embedded
in economic transactions. To interpret these patterns, which are
global in scope but microsocial in character, this article uses
the term "global microstructures." Features of the interaction
order, loosely defined, have become constitutive of and implanted
in processes that have global breadth. This study draws on Schutz
in the development of the concept of temporal coordination as the
basis for the level of intersubjectivity discerned in global markets.
This article contributes to economic sociology through the analysis
of cambist (i.e., trading) markets, which are distinguished from
producer markets, and by positing a form of market coordination
that supplements relational or network forms of coordination. [ABSTRACT
FROM AUTHOR] http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=7117488
SELTZER, W., and M. ANDERSON (2001): "The Dark Side of
Numbers: The Role of Population Data Systems in Human Rights Abuses," Social
Research, 68, 481. Explores the role of population data and population
data systems in documenting, investigating, and prosecuting human
rights abuses throughout the world. Evidence on the misuse or attempted
misuse of population data systems to bring harm to vulnerable populations;
Potential factors leading to misuses or attempted misuses; Types
of safeguards that help to deter future misuses. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897395
— (2001): "The Dark Side of Numbers: The Role of
Population Data Systems in Human Rights Abuses," Social Research,
68, 481. Explores the role of population data and population data
systems in documenting, investigating, and prosecuting human rights
abuses throughout the world. Evidence on the misuse or attempted
misuse of population data systems to bring harm to vulnerable populations;
Potential factors leading to misuses or attempted misuses; Types
of safeguards that help to deter future misuses. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897395
SCHWEBER, L. (2001): "Manipulation and Population Statistic
in Nineteenth-Century France and England," Social Research,
68, 547. Compares the use of population statistics in France and
Great Britain between 1825 and 1885. Factors attributed to the
differences in the debates over population statistics; Review of
literature on published articles about population statistics debate;
Hypotheses concerning the culture of population statistics in the
two countries. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897403
— (2001): "Manipulation and Population Statistic
in Nineteenth-Century France and England," Social Research,
68, 547. Compares the use of population statistics in France and
Great Britain between 1825 and 1885. Factors attributed to the
differences in the debates over population statistics; Review of
literature on published articles about population statistics debate;
Hypotheses concerning the culture of population statistics in the
two countries. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897403
POOVEY, M. (2001): "For Everything Else, There's," Social
Research, 68, 397. Explores the logic that informs commodification
as a way of engaging the modern social imaginary of which commodification
is a part. Introduction on the concepts of quantification, abstraction
and market price; Discussion on the instruments of modern capitalism;
Stock market history; Factors that contributed to the growth and
desacralization of the British economy; Changes in the relationship
between finance capital and labor. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897375
— (2001): "For Everything Else, There's," Social
Research, 68, 397. Explores the logic that informs commodification
as a way of engaging the modern social imaginary of which commodification
is a part. Introduction on the concepts of quantification, abstraction
and market price; Discussion on the instruments of modern capitalism;
Stock market history; Factors that contributed to the growth and
desacralization of the British economy; Changes in the relationship
between finance capital and labor. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897375
MILLER, P. (2001): "Governing by Numbers: Why Calculative
Practices Matter," Social Research, 68, 379. Examines the
calculative practices of accounting and ways in which accounting
shapes social and economic relations. What sets the calculative
practices of accountancy apart from other forms of quantification;
Emergence of standard costing in the early part of the twentieth
century; Introduction of net present value techniques for evaluating
investment decisions. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897374
— (2001): "Governing by Numbers: Why Calculative
Practices Matter," Social Research, 68, 379. Examines the
calculative practices of accounting and ways in which accounting
shapes social and economic relations. What sets the calculative
practices of accountancy apart from other forms of quantification;
Emergence of standard costing in the early part of the twentieth
century; Introduction of net present value techniques for evaluating
investment decisions. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897374
MACKENZIE, D. A. (2001): Mechanizing Proof : Computing, Risk,
and Trust. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy022/2001018687.html
HANDS, D. W. (2001): Reflection without Rules : Economic Methodology
and Contemporary Science Theory. Cambridge, U.K. ; New York: Cambridge
University Press.
DROR, O. E. (2001): "Counting the Affects: Discoursing
in Numbers," Social Research, 68, 357. Examines the genealogy
of the numeral transformation of emotions from its earliest beginnings
in the late nineteenth century. Review of literature on attempts
made to inscribe emotions through machines or under laboratory
conditions in the late nineteenth century; Characteristics of the
post-Victorian emotionology; Key element in emotion's history as
number; Features of numeric emotion. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897367
— (2001): "Counting the Affects: Discoursing in Numbers," Social
Research, 68, 357. Examines the genealogy of the numeral transformation
of emotions from its earliest beginnings in the late nineteenth
century. Review of literature on attempts made to inscribe emotions
through machines or under laboratory conditions in the late nineteenth
century; Characteristics of the post-Victorian emotionology; Key
element in emotion's history as number; Features of numeric emotion. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897367
DESROSIERES, A. (2001): "How Real Are Statistics? Four
Possible Attitudes*," Social Research, 68, 339. Argues that
the way in which producers and users of statistics talks about
reality is informed by the fairly unconscious intermingling of
several attitudes to reality. Attitudes to reality ranked by obviousness;
Key element in connecting the methodologies of the social sciences
and the natural sciences; Concepts underlying business accounting;
Examination on the quality issues in the statistic data. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897366
— (2001): "How Real Are Statistics? Four Possible
Attitudes*," Social Research, 68, 339. Argues that the way
in which producers and users of statistics talks about reality
is informed by the fairly unconscious intermingling of several
attitudes to reality. Attitudes to reality ranked by obviousness;
Key element in connecting the methodologies of the social sciences
and the natural sciences; Concepts underlying business accounting;
Examination on the quality issues in the statistic data. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897366
BULMER, M. (2001): "Social Measurement: What Stands in
Its Way?," Social Research, 68, 455. Considers some of the
hindrances to improved measurement of the social. Scope of social
measurement; Definitions and conceptual foundations; Challenges
posed by social measurement; Reasons for the failure of the social
indicator movement. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897391
— (2001): "Social Measurement: What Stands in Its
Way?," Social Research, 68, 455. Considers some of the hindrances
to improved measurement of the social. Scope of social measurement;
Definitions and conceptual foundations; Challenges posed by social
measurement; Reasons for the failure of the social indicator movement. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897391
BOWKER, G. C., and S. L. STAR (2001): "Pure, Real and Rational
Numbers: The American Imaginary of Countability," Social Studies
of Science, 31, 422-425. Discusses two recent crises of quantification
in US politics: (1) efforts by the Census Bureau to estimate counts
in certain areas (typically poor, democratic, & multiethnic) & (2)
the 2000 US elections, where it became clear that poor, democratic,
multiethnic areas were not going to have their votes well counted
because they were using outmoded voting equipment (ie, punch cards).
It is postulated that a person is a full citizen in the US only
if they are "countable," ie, in the census & as a
voter. "Uncountables" are the American version of untouchables
in India: a caste that can never aspire to social wealth & worth.
Adapted from the source document.
BOUMANS, M. (2001): "Measure for Measure: How Economists
Model the World into Numbers," Social Research, 68, 427. Argues
that in economics, models function as measuring instruments. How
the representative power of models can be achieved using Galileo's
model of intelligibility; Discussion on the instrumentalism approach
in economics; Problems associated with observing economic phenomena;
Application of calibration strategies in econometrics. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897378
— (2001): "Measure for Measure: How Economists Model
the World into Numbers," Social Research, 68, 427. Argues
that in economics, models function as measuring instruments. How
the representative power of models can be achieved using Galileo's
model of intelligibility; Discussion on the instrumentalism approach
in economics; Problems associated with observing economic phenomena;
Application of calibration strategies in econometrics. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897378
BARACCHI, C. (2001): "Numbers of Earth: The Labor of the
Intellect in Nature," Social Research, 68, 515. Explores the
place of geometry or intellect in nature. Definition of geometry;
Motivation behind the geometrical efforts of humans; Emergence
of geometry; Examples of physico-morphological connotations in
the poem `Iliad'; Discussion on the provenance of poetic utterance;
Interpretation on passages in the `Iliad' about the connection
of soul and aliveness. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897402
— (2001): "Numbers of Earth: The Labor of the Intellect
in Nature," Social Research, 68, 515. Explores the place of
geometry or intellect in nature. Definition of geometry; Motivation
behind the geometrical efforts of humans; Emergence of geometry;
Examples of physico-morphological connotations in the poem `Iliad';
Discussion on the provenance of poetic utterance; Interpretation
on passages in the `Iliad' about the connection of soul and aliveness. http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4897402
MILLER, P. (2000): "How and Why Sociology Forgot Accounting," University
of Oxford.
KALTHOFF, H., R. ROTTENBERG, and H.-J. WAGENER (2000): "Facts
and Figures: Economic Representations and Practices," Marburg:
Metropolis.
http://buecher.compricer.de/3895189960
http://www.metropolis-verlag.de/cgi-local/katalog.cgi?r=94&id=996
POWER, M. (1999): The Audit Society : Rituals of Verification.
Oxford, U.K. ; New York: Oxford University Press.
MILLER, P. (1998): "The Margins of Accounting," European
Accounting Review, 7, 605-621. Focuses on the margins of accounting.
Assistance to the understanding of accounting formation and transformation;
Emphasis on the fluid and mobile nature of accounting; Definitions
of accounting.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR
This paper calls for attention to the margins of accounting.
It argues that such a focus helps us to understand the formation
and transformation of accounting, its permeability to other bodies
of expertise, and how accounting has been made up out of ideas
and practices drawn from elsewhere. Accounting, it is argued, is
an assemblage of calculative practices and rationales that were
invented in other contexts and for other purposes. To draw attention
to the margins of accounting is to emphasize the fluid and mobile
nature of accounting. Practices that are now regarded as central
to accounting will have been at the margins previously, and practices
that are at the margins today may be at the core of accounting
in the future. The notion of costs for decision-making, discounting
techniques for investment appraisal, and cost accounting as a way
of governing the factory, provide the illustrative material. [ABSTRACT
FROM AUTHOR] http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=4220166
POWER, M. (1996): Accounting and Science : Natural Inquiry and
Commercial Reason. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press.
PORTER, T. M. (1995): Trust in Numbers : The Pursuit of Objectivity
in Science and Public Life. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University
Press.
COOPER, R., and J. LAW (1995): "Organization: Distal and
Proximal Views," in Research in the Sociology of Organizations:
Studies of Organizations in the European Tradition, ed. by S. B.
Bacharach, P. Gagliardi, and B. Mundell. Greenwich, Conn.: JAI
Press, 237-274.
Organisations may be seen both as discrete and bounded entities
(the 'distal') and as continuous and fuzzy processes (the 'proximal').
The latter are related to the network processes of actor-network
theory.
THOMPSON, G. F. (1994): "Early Double-Entry Bookkeeping
and the Rhetoric of Accounting Calculation," in Accounting
as Social and Institutional Practice, ed. by A. G. Hopwood, and
P. Miller. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 40-66.
POWER, M. (1994): "The Audit Society," in Accounting
as Social and Institutional Practice, ed. by A. G. Hopwood, and
P. Miller. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 299-316.
MILLER, P., and T. O'LEARY (1994): "Governing the Calculable
Person," in Accounting as Social and Institutional Practice,
ed. by A. G. Hopwood, and P. Miller. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 98-115.
MILLER, P. (1994): "Accounting as Social and Institutional
Practice: An Introduction," in Accounting as Social and Institutional
Practice, ed. by A. G. Hopwood, and P. Miller. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1-39.
HOSKIN, K., and R. MACVE (1994): "Writing, Examining, Disciplining:
The Genesis of Accounting’s Modern Power," in Accounting
as Social and Institutional Practice, ed. by A. G. Hopwood, and
P. Miller. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 67-97.
O'CONNELL, J. (1993): "Metrology: The Creation of Universality
by the Circulation of Particulars," Social Studies of Science,
23, 129-173. An exploration of the notion that the universality
of technoscience is achieved by expensive, labor-intensive metrological
practices, which have been neglected in social studies of science.
Using three case examples, an attempt is made to show how the appearance
of universality is achieved, what resists this achievement, how
that resistance can be overcome, & how authority is established
for the particular material representatives that stand for universal
abstract scientific entities in local settings. The examples considered
are: the development of machines to measure body composition, the
nineteenth-century international standardization of electrical
units, & the impact of the Dept of Defense on metrological
work in the US. 1 Table, 5 Figures. Adapted from the source document.
MILLER, P., and C. NAPIER (1993): "Genealogies of Calculation," Accounting,
Organizations and Society, 18, 631.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(93)90047-A
MACKENZIE, D. (1993): "Negotiating Arithmetic, Constructing
Proof: The Sociology of Mathematics and Information Technology," Social
Studies of Science, 23, 37-65. Mathematical proofs are discussed
in relation to their use in computer systems. Floating-point arithmetic
is first examined, revealing that the standard used for this arithmetic
in computers was negotiated, rather than deduced. Such ambiguity
over the mathematical proof used in a computer system had already
occurred in a court case involving the VIPER microprocessor. It
is therefore argued that these shifting notions of computer-system
correctness provide an interesting test case for the sociology
of knowledge, since it runs contrary to our ordinary intuitions
about mathematical certainty. 1 Table, 2 Figures, 59 References.
Adapted from the source document.
BOWKER, G. (1993): "How to Be Universal: Some Cybernetic
Strategies, 1943-70," Social Studies of Science, 23, 107-127.
Since the 1940s, practitioners of the discipline of cybernetics
have claimed (to varying degrees) that their work represents a
new universal science. This claim is explored here, detailing some
rhetorical strategies used to support it, & examining some
practical consequences for the general economy of the sciences
argued by cyberneticians. In conclusion, cybernetic strategies
are characterized in terms of a form complementary to the obligatory
passage point - the "distributed passage point." Adapted
from the source document.
PORTER, T. M. (1992): "Quantification and the Accounting
Ideal in Science," Social Studies of Science, 22, 633-652.
MILLER, P. (1992): "Accounting and Objectivity: The Invention
of Calculating Selves," Annals of Scholarship, 9, 61-85.
COOPER, R. (1992): "Formal Organization as Representation:
Remote Control, Displacement and Abbreviation," in Rethinking
Organization: New Directions in Organization Theory and Analysis,
ed. by M. Reed, and M. Hughes. London: Sage, 254-272.
MILLER, P. (1991): "Accounting Innovation Beyond the Enterprise:
Problematizing Investment Decisions and Programming Economic Growth
in the U.K. In the 1960s," Accounting, Organizations and Society,
16, 733.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(91)90022-7
CARRUTHERS, B. G., and W. N. ESPELAND (1991): "Accounting
for Rationality: Double-Entry Bookkeeping and the Rhetoric of Economic
Rationality," American Journal of Sociology, 97, 31. Addresses
claims made by Weber, Schumpeter, and Sombart concerning the importance
of double-entry bookkeeping. The conclusion is that the significance
of double-entry bookkeeping can be appreciated only if its rhetorical
and technical aspects areconsidered.ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR
This article addresses claims made by Weber, Schumpeter, and
Sombart concerning the importance of double-entry bookkeeping.
They argue that accounting played a key technical role in enhancing
rationality and furthering the development of capitalist methods
of production. The history of accounting methods and practices
from the Middle Ages to the 19th century is surveyed in order to
evaluate these arguments. Two important dimensions of accounting
are discussed: the rhetorical and the technical. The argument is
that, as rhetoric, accounting must be understood as an attempt
to convince some audience of the legitimacy of business ventures.
Goody's analysis of writing and literacy is applied to the development
of accounting as a technique. As a practical method, double-entry
bookkeeping appears to have increased "rationality," but
the rhetorical side of double entry is also critical. The conclusion
is that the significance of double-entry bookkeeping can be appreciated
only if its rhetorical and technical aspects are considered. [ABSTRACT
FROM AUTHOR] http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=9110141559
BLOOMFIELD, B. P. (1991): "The Role of Information Systems
in the Uk National Health Service: Action at a Distance and the
Fetish of Calculation," Social Studies of Science, 21, 701-734.
Fundamental issues pertaining to distinctive characteristics & use
of information technology in relation to the development of information
systems within the UK National Health Service (NHS) are examined.
Attention is given to the current Resource Management Initiative
in the NHS, which involves the fabrication of information systems
to connect medical activity to resource usage, & thus to costs.
After examining the features of some of the rival inscriptions
undergoing development to make this connection visible, the properties
of information technology in enhancing their mobilization are discussed.
Also addressed is the immutability & combinability of these
inscriptions, & some of the implications that may follow from
their use. Adapted from the source document.
MILLER, P., and N. ROSE (1990): "Governing Economic Life," Economy
and Society, 19, 1-31.
MACKENZIE, D. A. (1990): Inventing Accuracy : An Historical
Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
HACKING, I. (1990): The Taming of Chance. Cambridge [England]
; New York: Cambridge University Press.
GIGERENZER, G. (1989): The Empire of Chance : How Probability
Changed Science and Everyday Life. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire] ;
New York: Cambridge University Press.
FAULHABER, G. R., and W. J. BAUMOL (1988): "Economists
as Innovators: Practical Products of Theoretical Research," Journal
of Economic Literature, 26, 577-600. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0515%28198806%2926%3A2%3C577%3AEAIPPO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-J
PORTER, T. M. (1986): The Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820-1900.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
BURCHELL, S., C. CLUBB, A. HOPWOOD, J. HUGHES, and J. NAHAPIET
(1980): "The Roles of Accounting in Organizations and Society," Accounting,
Organizations and Society, 5, 5. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VCK-45W6MGF-FF/2/889ac2cc10e8e2daf750d97d6b936e19
|