Perspectives on language, accountability and critical accounting: An interpretative perspective

This paper explores the utility of Habermas's A Theory of Communicative Action (vols. 1 and 2) and his Between Facts and Norms. Habermas's work has influenced a series of reforms for accounting as advanced by some critical accounting researchers writing about critical and public sector accountability models. This paper considers accounting's role in the public sphere and examines the Habermasian strain running through critical accounting. A different language model is introduced to the accounting community which is based on the work of H.G. Gadamer and Charles Taylor. In this paper, language is used to escape the instrumental limitations of accounting.