In search of accounting absence

The backdrop of this paper is the social setting in which the growth of measurement is uncritically viewed as progress. The paper is a call for a critical view of such a naive position and to take an alternative route in the ever-continuing search for the qualities of accounting. This paper investigates the properties of accounting by conducting a study of the absence of accounts. The aim of this study is, therefore, to problematize accounting presence through a study of accounting absence. In the paper a framework for the study of absence is developed building on the distinction between accounting in principle (the ostensive dimension) and accounting in practice (the performative dimension). It is concluded that the absence of accounting can be understood either as the negative of presence (in principle) or as a delineation between accountability and responsibility (in practice).