Purpose The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the moral dimensions of accounting by examining the case of Gross National Happiness (GNH) in Bhutan, and to propose a new approach to accounting that is grounded in the Buddhist principle of the Middle Path. This approach aims to promote well-being and happiness, contrasting with traditional accounting practices. Design/methodology/approach The paper outlines the core concepts of the Middle Path theory and GNH. The authors first problematise the role of traditional accounting in the well-being and happiness project. The authors explore accountability from the Middle Path perspective, which is a key aspect of Buddhist philosophy. Using the concept of Middle Path accountability and GNH in practice, the authors then examine accounting in terms of the four “immeasurable moral virtues” (tshad med bzhi) of the Middle Path. The authors conclude by highlighting the value of the Middle Path for conceptualising accountability and emancipating contemporary accounting from its ethical and theoretical constraints. Findings This paper compares the application of traditional accounting and accountability with the Middle Path and GNH practices. The authors find that ethical discourses in traditional accounting and accountability are not compatible with the values of the Middle Path, thereby limiting the scope of accounting and accountability. This constraint is overcome by introducing four “immeasurable moral virtues” (tshad med bzhi) of Buddhism, which promote spiritual development (wisdom) to replace the existing ethical strands of traditional accounting and accountability to support the well-being and happiness project. Research limitations/implications The study is limited to the review of concepts in GNH and Buddhist philosophy. More empirical studies in different contextual settings could increase understanding of how the practice of Middle Path and GNH could drive the project of well-being and happiness through accounting. Practical implications The paper seeks to contribute to the operationalisation of GNH in organisation by framing social and well-being accounting grounded in the Middle Path theory. The authors also seek to clarify the role of accounting as a social and moral practice. Social implications Situated within the fields of social and moral accounting, the paper seeks to elevate the potential role of accounting in the promotion of well-being and happiness of people and other sentient beings. By applying four moral virtues of love, compassion, appreciative joy and equanimity in accounting, the authors seek to enhance the role of accounting that could potentially reduce poverty, social inequity, corruption and promote harmony and cultural well-being. Originality/value This study undertakes a conceptual integration of the GNH and Middle Path philosophy to understand the theoretical and ethical implications of traditional accounting and accountability. This contribution to the literature expands the possibilities of accounting and accountability on social and well-being accounting by introducing the Middle Path and GNH concepts.

Purpose This paper aims to interrogate the accountabilities of the foreign companies which have directly invested in the Iraqi oil and gas industry. Design/methodology/approach Using both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, the authors first map the stakeholder accountabilities (qualitative) of foreign oil and gas companies and second, the authors seek to demonstrate quantitatively – through structural break tests and publicly available sustainability reports – whether these companies have accounted for their environmental and social impacts both to Iraqi people and to the global community. Findings The authors find that the Western democratic values embedded in stakeholder theory, in terms of sustainability, do not hold the same meaning in cultural contexts where conceptions and application of Western democratic values are deeply problematic. This paper identifies a crucial problem in the global oil supply chain and problematises the application of traditional theoretical approaches in the context of the Iraqi oil and gas industry. Practical implications Implications of this study include the refocus of attention onto the local and global environmental impacts of the Iraqi oil and gas industry by foreign direct investments. Such a refocus highlights the reasons and ways that decision makers should accommodate these less salient stakeholders. Originality/value The primary contribution is the critique of the lack of environmental accountability of foreign direct investment companies in the Iraqi oil and gas industry. The authors also make theoretical and methodological contributions via the problematisation of the cultural bias inherent in traditional stakeholder theories, and by introducing a quantitative method to evaluate the accountabilities of companies.

ntarctica and the Southern Ocean provide numerous ecosystem services that benefit people globally, but many are ‘invisible’ to markets and to some decision makers. A subset of these services — Antarctic tourism, commercial fisheries, and a suite of inter-related regulating services — are conservatively valued at ~US $180 billion annually, highlighting their importance.

The indigenization of academic disciplines has intensified in recent years. Accounting is no exception. The term "Indigenous accounting" has been evoked in recent publications, but a potential criticism of its use is its lack of clear conceptual boundaries. In this chapter, I hope to establish the characteristics of an Indigenous accounting approach and suggest what such an approach can practically achieve. As someone who has used the concept widely, I will draw on my experiences, motivations and reflections in using this approach. Ultimately, I believe that an Indigenous accounting approach should not be conceptualised as merely an alternative technical practice of accounting but rather as a means to counter the hegemonic practices of accounting that are steeped within colonial relations, capitalist conditions and neoliberal governmentalities. I hope this reflection provides clearer guidance for accounting scholars interested in engaging with the concept and more broadly to the decolonization project of academia.

This paper situates Indigenous social reproduction as a duality; as both a site of primitive accumulation and as a critical, resurgent, land-based practice. Drawing on three distinct cases from British Columbia, Canada, Aotearoa New Zealand and Bua, Fiji, we illustrate how accounting techniques can be a key mechanism with which Indigenous modes of life are brought to the market and are often foundational to the establishment of markets. We argue that accounting practices operate at the vanguard of primitive accumulation by extracting once invaluable outsides (e.g. Indigenous land and bodies) and rendering these either valuable or valueless for the social reproduction of settler society. The commodification of Indigenous social reproduction sustains the conditions that enable capitalism to flourish through primitive accumulation. However, we privilege Indigenous agency, resistance and resurgence in our analysis to illustrate that these techniques of commodification through accounting are not inevitable. They are resisted or wielded towards Indigenous alternatives at every point.

Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are key elements in the physical and biological Earth system. Human-induced climate change, and other human activities in the region, are leading to several potential interacting tipping points with major and irreversible consequences. Here, we examine eight potential physical, biological, chemical, and social Antarctic tipping points. These include ice sheets, ocean acidification, ocean circulation, species redistribution, invasive species, permafrost melting, local pollution, and the Antarctic Treaty System. We discuss the nature of each potential tipping point, its control variables, thresholds, timescales, and impacts, and focus on the potential for cumulative and cascading effects as a result of their interactions. The analysis provides substantial evidence of the need for more concerted and rapid action to limit climate change and to minimise the impacts of local human activities to avoid these cascading tipping points.

PurposeThis paper examines the state's accountability to its citizens, in particular the First Peoples of settler colonial nations such as Australia, and how these responsibilities may be enacted via a process of compensatory justice in Native Title claims. We focus on the landmark Timber Creek ruling and the impacts of racialized preconceptions on the accountability outcomes of the case.Design/methodology/approachThis study draws on critical race theory to reveal embedded racialised perspectives that perpetuate exclusion and discriminatory outcomes. Court documents including hearing transcripts, case judgements, witness statements, appellant and respondent submissions, expert reports and responses from First Nations leaders, form the basis of our analysis.FindingsThe case highlights how the compensation awarded to Native Title holders was based on racialised assumptions that prioritised neoliberal values, commercial activities and reaching a "socially acceptable" judgement over valuing Aboriginal uses of land. A critical analysis of court documents reveals the pervasiveness of presumed "objectivity" in the use of accounting tools to calculate economic value and the accountability implications of a process based on litigation, not negotiation. These findings reveal the hiding places offered by calculative practices that equate neoliberal priorities with accountability and reaffirm the importance of alternative accountings to resist inequitable distributive outcomes.Originality/valueNovel insights, drawing on First Nations peoples' connections to land and their perspectives on accountability and justice, are offered in this study. Our analysis of Native Title holders' submissions to the courts alongside historical and anthropological sources leads to the conclusion that compensation decisions regarding Native Title land must be approached from the perspective of Aboriginal landowners if accountable outcomes are to be achieved.

Prior research has identified both the contribution that people make to nature and the contribution that nature makes to people (by enhancing wellbeing) - with clear conceptual models to describe the interactions. Prior research has also made a clear case for incorporating insights from multiple perspectives and knowledge systems when seeking to better understand this interactive system. What is lacking, is guidance on how to operationalise some of these ideas to provide bespoke advice to environmental managers. Arguably, we have an adequate, albeit imperfect, understanding of how to operationalise (measure, value and/or otherwise account for) some parts of the conceptual model. There is, for example, abundant literature that describes different ways of valuing Ecosystem services, and a growing body of literature that describes and quantifies the ecological benefits of various stewardship activities, which will subsequently also generate an indirect benefit to people (since improved ecological conditions will improve Ecosystem services). In comparison, we know relatively little about the way in which stewardship activities directly benefit people - and it is on this gap that our paper focuses. We partially fill that knowledge gap by first reaching out to and learning from some of Australia's First Nations People. Key learnings underscore the inter-connectedness of the system, and the need for resource managers to not only monitor the extent and condition of natural system but also the extent and condition of an inextricably connected human system, in addition to the human-nature interactions. We clearly identify ways in which those insights can be used to improve and extend accounting frameworks, such as SEEA Ecosystem Accounts developed by the United Nations that are often used by natural resource managers. In so doing, we generate new insights about Indigenous stewardship (Caring for Country) and methods of accounting for and monitoring stewardship activities. As such, our work provides a practical illustration of one way to populate conceptual models with 'real world' data that also incorporates different world views, to support decision makers for improved social and environmental outcomes.

The paper examines the role of accounting and audit technologies in various forms of resistance that were enacted by Indigenous Fijians to a neoliberal reform of customary land. The paper highlights the non-neutrality of accounting as it was used by the state to facilitate the imple-mentation of the neoliberal reform and used by Indigenous Fijians to resist land reform. The land reform sought to enhance the existing system of land tenure with the creation of a land bank to promote the utilisation of customary land in Fiji. The paper analyses the first lease to be issued under the newly introduced system - Fiji's first bauxite mine in the province of Bua. The study is informed by the sociology of Pierre Bourdieu and draws on data from publicly available docu-ments and semi-structured interviews with Indigenous landowners, government officials and company representatives. The paper extends prior literature by illustrating the agency of Indig-enous peoples in the use of accounting as a form of resistance. Resistance to this land policy was enacted by Indigenous peoples that involved the non-compliance with technical accounting re-quirements, resisting the default method by which lease rentals were to be distributed (and therefore accounted for) and utilising audit reports (an accounting-related technology) to mobilise a petition against the land reform that eventually led to a parliamentary inquiry. The paper shows how Indigenous Fijians were "pulled" into the "game" of neoliberalism but rather than being fully enchanted by its symbolic order, they were able to "resist" the game with the technologies of accounting and auditing playing a crucial role in this resistance.

PurposeThis paper aims to present the findings of a government-initiated project that sought to explore the possibility of incorporating cultural connections to land within the federal national accounting system using the United Nations Systems of Environmental-Economic Accounting (UN-SEEA) framework as a basis.Design/methodology/approachAdopting a critical dialogic approach and responding to the calls for critical accountants to engage with stakeholders, the authors worked with two Indigenous groups of Australia to develop a system of accounts that incorporates their cultural connections to "Country". The two groups were clans from the Mungguy Country in the Kakadu region of Northern Territory and the Ewamian Aboriginal Corporation of Northern Queensland. Conducting two-day workshops on separate occasions with both groups, the authors attempted to meld the Indigenous worldviews with the worldviews embodied within national accounting systems and the UN-SEEA framework.FindingsThe models developed highlight significant differences between the ontological foundations of Indigenous and Western-worldviews and the authors reflect on the tensions created between these competing worldviews. The authors also offer pragmatic solutions that could be implemented by the Indigenous Traditional Owners and the government in terms of developing such an accounting system that incorporates connections to Country.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to providing a contemporary case study of engagement with Indigenous peoples in the co-development of a system of accounting for and by Indigenous peoples; it also contributes to the ongoing debate on bridging the divide between critique and praxis; and finally, the paper delves into an area that is largely unexplored within accounting research which is national accounting.

PurposeThis study explores accounting practice in an Indigenous organization. This organization is embedded within a rural Aboriginal community in the country currently known as Australia. In doing so, this study illustrates the intertwining of accounting practice, practitioners, organizations and social/cultural context, while recognizing that the cultural embeddedness of accounting is not uniform.Design/methodology/approachEmpirical materials were collected as part of a qualitative field study with an Indigenous organization. Specific methods include interviews, informal conversations, documentary reviews and participant observations. These materials were analysed through a Bourdieusian perspective.FindingsBy working with Indigenous Peoples on the ground, rather than relying on secondary materials, this study highlights how the values of a community challenge and reorient accounting practice towards community aspirations. This study illustrates how fields beyond the organization influence accounting practice, including in budgeting and assurance.Originality/valueExploring Indigenous practices of accounting maintains Indigenous agency and opens up space for alternative understandings and practices of accounting. By illustrating how a community can influence the accounting practice of an organization, this study has implications for wider understandings of the cultural embeddedness of mainstream accounting and possible alternatives.

Recent geopolitical tensions between the world's most powerful countries have fuelled competition for control and influence over countries and their territory within the South Pacific. One of the reasons for this is that the South Pacific is seen to be possessing an untapped potential of both terrestrial and marine mineral resources. The confluence of these environmental, geopolitical, and economic forces in the South Pacific are explored in a case study of an ongoing iron sands mining project in the province of Ba, Fiji. The area being mined is largely coastline and falls under a large local community's qoliqoli or inshore fishing rights. The governance of these fishing rights is ambivalent, and the lack of a clear legal framework on the qoliqoli has lent itself to a process that has been coined as coastal grabbing. Drawing on the concept of 'terraqueous territoriality', where transnational capitalist forces attempt to transcend the distinction between land and sea in the accumulation and extraction of resources, this chapter explains how this re-territorialization of space creates tensions and conflicts between mining companies, the state and Indigenous landowners.

Purpose The study uses the case of an online-mediated barter economy that proliferated during the COVID-19 crisis to highlight Indigenous notions of barter, trade and exchange. Design/methodology/approach A netnographic approach was employed which involved collecting online posts and comments which were stored and analysed in NVivo. This was supplemented with field notes and reflections from authors with an intimate knowledge of the context. These were analysed thematically. The overall methodology is inspired by decolonising methodologies that seek to restore the agency of Indigenous Peoples in research towards self-determination. Findings Findings suggest that during and beyond the crisis, social media (a new means) is being used to facilitate barter and determinations of/accounting for value within. This is being done through constant appeals to, and adaptation of, tradition (old ways). Indigenous accounting is therefore best understood as so through Indigenous accountability values and practices. Originality/value This paper propose a re-orientation of accounting for barter research that incorporates recent debates between the disciplines of economics and anthropology on the nature of barter, debt and exchange. The authors also propose a re-imagining of accounting and accountability relations based on Indigenous values within an emerging online barter system in Fiji during COVID-19 as “old ways and new means” to privilege Indigenous agency and overcome excessive essentialism.

The economic impact of COVID-19 has caused a global economic slowdown with industries shutting down and massive layoffs worldwide. Governments of the more developed and richer economies have responded to this economic crisis by launching unprecedented stimulus packages aimed at keeping their economy afloat. However, many of the smaller developing economies lack the financial resources to provide such generous welfare packages. Fiji is one such economy that has been particularly affected due to their reliance on tourism, their dependence on international aid, which has also reduced during COVID-19, and Fiji was also affected by a cyclone during the beginning of 2020. The Fiji government's social welfare and social protection system were already weak, and this crisis has highlighted the vulnerability of the economy and of its people. With an ailing economy, lack of liquidity and lack of government support, one would think that this would push Fijians into a situation of economic despair, increased crime and potential mass revolt. However, this has been far from the case. One of the most interesting developments from Fiji during COVID-19 has been the emergence of a barter economy facilitated by social media. The Barter for Better Fiji (BFBF) initiative is a Facebook page that was created by three Fijian women to help individuals in Fiji access essential goods such as groceries by bartering for other goods and services. The page has become a national and regional phenomenon with outgrowths of the page also being created in other Pacific Island countries and in major economies with large Pacific Island communities. This chapter explores the emergence of Fiji's barter economy as an alternative form of community-based and internet-mediated social protection during the COVID-19 crisis.

This essay explores the emergence of the BFBF and how this online group made ‘bartering’ and other practices of exchange central to surviving Covid-19. We analyse the posts and discussions of BFBF participants in 2020. We are interested in the way moderators and participants position this contemporary way of conducting bartering as an alternative to market trade that has deep cultural roots in Fiji. Such forms of exchange have serious implications for the study of digital practices and relational systems of exchange in Fiji and beyond.

In this paper, I contribute to the conversation of imagining the future of Social and Environmental Accounting (SEA) research for Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS). I focus on PSIDS as this region is arguably the most disadvantaged region given its low economic base, geographic isolation and environmental precarity. Initially, I conduct a literature review of accounting-related papers based on PSIDS and provide some suggestions for a research agenda of SEA for PSIDS. The literature review highlights that SEA research in the Pacific is an under-researched area and the few studies on SEA in the Pacific have largely been based on Fiji. For many countries in the Pacific, there is a vacuum of academic literature, however, there is a need to better understand the role of SEA in assisting these island nations address pertinent social and environmental issues, and no issue is as important as climate change. I make some inter-related suggestions for the future of SEA research for PSIDS. These suggestions emphasise the production of knowledge that draws on a diversity of perspectives from other disciplines and focuses on developing solutions based on the context of PSIDS and the lived realities of Pacific Island peoples.