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The definition and defence of the public interest will never be produced from the accountant's view of the world, which the new belief system presents as the supreme form of human achievement (Pierre [16] Bourdieu, 1998a, pp. 104-5).
A general review of contemporary research on accountability reveals a wide spectrum of applied definitions. One particular debate concerns the extent to which accountability can be defined as a formal and administered relation or set of practices. When formalised, the communicative practices associated with accountability tend to be described in procedural terms (see, for example, [84] Watts and Zimmerman, 1990; [72] Power, 1991; and [46] Gray et al. , 1997). In contrast, other strands of contemporary research have shown that accountability and its construction resembles a more intuitive, organic, or "reflexive" practice (see, for example, [75] Roberts, 1991; [64] Munro, 1991; [58] Lehman, 2001). In this case, it is assumed that accountability continually evolves in line with (and with the intention of reflecting) extant systems of social, political and cultural communication. In this paper, we will argue that any attempt to find consensus in this pivotal debate needs to recognise that accountability is a floating and transcendental concept. As such, its meaning can only be appropriated in the context of a cross-disciplinary discursive arena and a multi-dimensional political space[1] .
Notably, a variety of discourses on accountability are evident not only in business-related studies, but also throughout the domains of sociology, anthropology, organisational theory, political science, and cultural or media studies. This paper intends neither to condense this range and provide an overarching theory nor to append yet another transitory definition to a growing intra- and cross-disciplinary set. Instead, the purpose of the investigation is to introduce and discuss how and why accountability has become such a central issue in those elements of business-related studies that seek to reconstruct the form of relations between corporations and society. In doing so, we will consider the degree of politicisation that affects this area of study, and show how references to accountability and its ostensible enhancement serve either to legitimate, defend or challenge the status quo .
Providing a backdrop to this investigation, we will consider the interdependent development of social, environmental, and critical strands of accounting research, and discuss...