A Convention Theorist Approach to Accounting

The word accounting mainly refers to a particular form of quantification aimed at producing quantified images of the economic activity of various entities (companies, public bodies, nations, etc.) for reporting to various stakeholders. Accounting can therefore be studied as a quantification technique, applying the tools of the sociology of quantification. However, there are special features that make accounting more than just one quantification technique among many. The economics and sociology of conventions (EC/SC) provide important analytical tools to analyze its essential role in the economy. Accounting is in fact a very important source of coordination conventions that frame our economic exchanges. It is also a major source of economic valuation, as it is able to state economic worth and profits. This chapter highlights the different aspects that shape accounting practices and the power struggles around accounting figures. It also explains how these aspects have evolved historically in order to build the necessary trust in numbers that makes them useful: accounting conventions have been gradually regulated, and so has the accounting profession. These characteristics of accounting make it a very interesting vector for addressing both the microeconomic issues of coordination between economic agents and the particular economic institutions that shape economic regimes. Accounting conventions are indicators of what and who count in a political economy. It is then not surprising that reform projects are targeting accounting conventions in order to change the way the economy works.