Critique of Accounting: Examination of the Foundations and Normative Structure of an Applied Discipline

(Hardback)

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The increasing gap between the theory and practice of accounting should be taken as a warning that academics have emphasized the economics and sociology of accounting, while neglecting the applied science of accounting. This treatise points a way out of the present dilemma by focusing on the need for dealing with moral and other normative issues as well as the problem of relating means to ends. It also attempts a bold synthesis of the two major opposing camps of present-day academic accounting, the Critical-Interpretive Perspective of Great Britain, on one side, and the Positive Accounting Theory of America, on the other. The challenging issues that this book raises should be of great interest to practitioners, no less than academics, to senior undergraduates, no less than to graduate students and all those interested in an unorthodox perspective of an exciting, but often misunderstood, field.

Reviews

For three or even four decades, Richard Mattesich has tenaciously and prolifically probed the deeper cultural reality that is accounting....With it, he inspired others to recognize that the roots of accounting technology reach deeply into human culture, indeed into the evolution of human civilization itself....Hopefully, the exercise (i.e., the Critique of Accounting) will whet the research appetites of some accounting theorists to renew their interest in the ideas Mattessich has introduced.-Accounting Enquiries
Professor Richard Mattessich is one of the most eminent accounting thinkers of our century....In this book (Critique of Accounting) Professor Mattessich has integrated his views and research conducted for almost four decades....the book is Mattessich's protest against aspects prevailing in contemporary accounting such as the relative neglect of ethics and norms, the methodological intolerance of positive accounting theory, the searching for an absolute value notion, and the treatment of academic accounting as a pure science....The book will be of interest to many researchers in accounting--not only to those working in an analytical accounting area but also to those interested in empirical research. It should be one of the most important works for doctoral students and young faculty members...-European Accounting Review
Richard Mattessich has undoubtedly been one of the most significant writers and thinkers about accounting during the past half century....With regard to content (of Critique of Accounting), on most of the important issues, the author seems to have reached sensible, perhaps even wise, conclusions, whether it be on broad issues such as the status of accounting as an applied science or more practical issues such as how we should account for changing prices....Mattessich's challenge to the next generation of researchers is to match accounting methods to particular purposes and, in doing so, to marry deductive theorising with empirical testing.-Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting
The range of Mattessich's interests is truly impressive. They include ancient history, post-Kuhnian philosophy, measurement theory, information economics, current value models, and critical theory....In summary, this book reaffirms Professor Mattessich's reputation as a leading, perhaps the leading, eclectic academic accounting scholar of the second half of the twentieth century....The energy, enthusiasm, and love of subject which emanated from his earlier books and articles are manifest throughout Critique of Accounting.-Accounting Historians Journal
"For three or even four decades, Richard Mattesich has tenaciously and prolifically probed the deeper cultural reality that is accounting....With it, he inspired others to recognize that the roots of accounting technology reach deeply into human culture, indeed into the evolution of human civilization itself....Hopefully, the exercise (i.e., the Critique of Accounting) will whet the research appetites of some accounting theorists to renew their interest in the ideas Mattessich has introduced."-Accounting Enquiries
"Richard Mattessich has undoubtedly been one of the most significant writers and thinkers about accounting during the past half century....With regard to content (of Critique of Accounting), on most of the important issues, the author seems to have reached sensible, perhaps even wise, conclusions, whether it be on broad issues such as the status of accounting as an applied science or more practical issues such as how we should account for changing prices....Mattessich's challenge to the next generation of researchers is to match accounting methods to particular purposes and, in doing so, to marry deductive theorising with empirical testing."-Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting
"The range of Mattessich's interests is truly impressive. They include ancient history, post-Kuhnian philosophy, measurement theory, information economics, current value models, and critical theory....In summary, this book reaffirms Professor Mattessich's reputation as a leading, perhaps the leading, eclectic academic accounting scholar of the second half of the twentieth century....The energy, enthusiasm, and love of subject which emanated from his earlier books and articles are manifest throughout Critique of Accounting."-Accounting Historians Journal
"Professor Richard Mattessich is one of the most eminent accounting thinkers of our century....In this book (Critique of Accounting) Professor Mattessich has integrated his views and research conducted for almost four decades....the book is Mattessich's protest against aspects prevailing in contemporary accounting such as the relative neglect of ethics and norms, the methodological intolerance of positive accounting theory, the searching for an absolute value notion, and the treatment of academic accounting as a pure science....The book will be of interest to many researchers in accounting--not only to those working in an analytical accounting area but also to those interested in empirical research. It should be one of the most important works for doctoral students and young faculty members..."-European Accounting Review

Author Bio

RICHARD V. MATTESSICH is Professor Emeritus of the University of British Columbia, where he held the Arthur Andersen & Co. Chair. Mattessich and his work have been discussed in Twentieth-Century Accounting Thinkers (1994) and similar surveys, and his professional memoirs were published in Japan by Chuo University. His practical experience comprises several years as an engineer and accountant. He is a Ford Foundation Fellow (USA), a distinguished Erskine Fellow (New Zealand), a Killam Senior Fellow (Canada), and a member of two national academies (Italy and Austria), as well as an honorary Life Member of the Academy of Accounting Historians. He has served on the Board of Governors of the School of Chartered Accountancy of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of British Columbia and was on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Certified General Accountants Research Foundation for six years.