Work

Critical environmental accounting and accountability in anti-democratic times: Agonistic repoliticization and critical environmental politics

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: To foster and advance critical environmental accounting and accountability (CEAA) research, we argue there is a need to foreground the political dimensions of environmental issues by addressing plurality, conflict, contestability and power. Contemporary environmental accounting and accountability (EAA), especially as it is increasingly mainstreamed, often remains entrenched in allegedly apolitical technocratic-managerial and market logics. At the same time climate denialism and authoritarian neoliberalism intensify pressures against critical research. Drawing on critical environmental politics scholarship, we interpret these developments as part of broader depoliticizing and anti-democratic formations that narrow the questions EAA asks, how problems are represented, and the socio-ecological futures imaginable. Focusing on climate change, we position critical dialogic accounting and accountability (CDAA) as one possible path for politically revitalizing EAA by deepening understanding of, and providing responses to, the anti-democratic conditions that blunt EAA's critical force.

Source: Critical Perspectives on Accounting

DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2026.102883

Authors: Judy Brown, Jesse Dillard

Institutions: Victoria University of Wellington, Portland State University, Universidad de Burgos

Language: English

Topic: Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting

Subfield: Strategy and Management

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Peace, justice, and strong institutions, Climate action

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $4,460