Accounting and Accountability in the Anthropocene: the case of global marine fisheries
Tuesday, May 8, 2018 - 13:00 to 15:00
Copenhagen Business School, Dalgas Have DH 2V.Ø71 and 2Ø.073 (The 2nd floor, east wing of the building)
As human impacts on the natural environment have intensified and created system wide effects (for example, biodiversity loss and global climate change), it has been suggested that we have entered a new geological epoch (distinct from the Holocene): the Anthropocene. In such an epoch, “human actions have become the main driver of global environmental change” (Rockström, Steffen, Noone ... & Foley, 2009, p. 472). This paper takes this proposition seriously and proceeds in three phases. First, an analysis of how and why scientists are proposing we are in the Anthropocene is conducted as well as introducing the more ‘popular’ discourse on this concept. Second, we explore potential connections between the Anthropocene and accounting scholarship, and by extension, how we think about organisations and studying them. Finally, the themes in the paper are brought together in a case study of global marine fisheries as a way of illustrating what research might be conducted in the Anthropocene. The case study suggests that: novel research objects and samples are likely to emerge in accounting studies in the Anthropocene; inter and trans-disciplinary engagements are needed to deal with new sources of complexity; and stewardship may emerge to bolster discussions around organizational accountability in the Anthropocene. Taken together, the paper starts the process of establishing connections between accounting, accountability and the Anthropocene.
Jan Bebbington’s research emerged from the intersection between sustainable development concerns and accounting/reporting as technologies of control and accountability. Her work has focused on a variety of problem settings including her most recent work in the global marine sector looking at ‘modern slavery’.
Registration no later than 02.05.2018:
Please register by sending a mail to Annie Saugstrup as.msc@cbs.dk
The page was last edited by: Centre for Sustainability // 02/22/2021