Critical accounting as an epistemic community: Hegemony, resistance and identity

In this paper I discuss the School of Accounting and Finance's epistemic community, which has been a result of the vision of Professor Michael Gaffikin. The distinguishing feature of this epistemic community is the critique of accounting which rejects positivist ideologies and its claims to objective knowledge. As a member of this epistemic community, I present a critical reflexive ethnography and question the role of identity of the self and of the epistemic community. I consider the importance of resistance, particularly in the light of national research evaluation ‘initiatives’. I conclude that hegemony, or the potential of hegemony, is a necessary condition for the epistemic community to sustain its identity.