Gerard gives a brief overview of poststructuralist theory for accountants.

1. LO 2 Develop a broad understanding
of perspectives which challenge the
conventional opinions about the role
of accounting within society
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2. What else is out there?
There is an annoying habit amongst accounting theorists to simply
dismiss any form of research that is not positivist or normative as
"critical" research.
Well, critical theory does feature strongly amongst these alternative
visions of accounting, but it is far from being representative. The next
slide is a list of some of the alternative paradigms out there.
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3. Alternative perspectives of accounting
• Interpretivist (methods of interpreting texts and finding meaning)
• Constructivist (sees the world as "socially constructed". Accounting
itself is one example of a social construction, and so is money)
• Ethnography analyses the ethnic and cultural dimensions of social
institutions
• Poststructuralism is based on literary theory and considers how
people bring their own "self" to the search for meaning and truth in
structures (accounting itself is one such structure).
3 Created by Dr G. L. Ilott, CQUniversity Australia

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5. Structuralism vs. Poststructuralism
Accounting theorists mostly don't realise it, but accounting is structuralist in nature: all ideas of truth and meaning
is generated through structures, and if you want to know what something means or whether it is ethical (true),
then you should consult a structure, such as:
• Accounting standards
• The conceptual framework
• Your accounting education
• Policies and pronouncements
• The law
• And so on…
If you can't understand or can't find the answer, you didn't interpret the structures well enough. Go and do it again!
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6. Structuralism vs. Poststructuralism Part 2
So in structuralism, truth is in the structure somewhere. To borrow
from the X-Files, "the truth is out there", and you just have to discover
it.
Poststructuralists like structures too, but they don't believe that truth
and meaning (which are essentially the same thing) are out there
somewhere in the structures. Rather it is inside yourself, and so you
have to apply what you know and believe to the structure.
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7. An example:
For a structuralist, "profit" is understood in the context of the structures that deliver
it: the Income statement and the bottom line are key indicators. We also draw on
our education and the standards to understand the process that delivers "profit".
A poststructuralist does not reject any of this, but will also see "profit" as nothing
more than a mathematical construct, and its meaning is what we as individuals
bring to it.
Financial analysts often employ poststructuralist techniques to evaluate financial
reports, and discern trends that might not be obvious to the pure structuralist
reading of the report.
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8. Past and present
• Poststructural accounting research is relatively recent.
• The work of Norman B. Macintosh has been very important in promoting this approach to
accounting.
• Unlike the Critical perspective, poststructuralism does not seek to change society or the
outcomes of accounting,
• But is DOES seek to change the ways we learn and come to understand accounting and its
very nature.
• Poststructuralists tend to see accounting as language and discourse rather than structure
and practice.
I hope you enjoyed that quick tour of alternative views of accounting.
8 Created by Dr G. L. Ilott, CQUniversity Australia