Accounting practices involve interpretation and are not straightforwardly performative

Evidence

Second, current accounting practices involve, as the name suggests, ways to account for value (e.g., Miller and O’Leary 2007; MacKenzie 2009). According to Donald MacKenzie (2009), for example, accounting practices involve a considerable amount of interpretation—they are not, in this sense, unambiguously or directly performative (cf. Callon 1998). Valuations could be based on current profit, earnings, cash flow, or something else entirely. — Kean Birch, Rethinking Value in the Bio-economy, 35

Categorization

• DEFINE: Contrasts the performativity thesis (Callon) with MacKenzie’s interpretive view of accounting — key framework distinction.
• QUESTION: Worth chasing: what exactly distinguishes MacKenzie’s ‘interpretive’ accounting from Callon’s performativity?
• XREF: connects to: Sustainability accounting quantifies some impacts while obscuring hard-to-measure ones — Gerald F. Davis & Suntae Kim, Financialization of the Economy, 88; Timing and accounting rules, not the hedge itself, sank Metallgesellschaft — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 1641; Accounting for biological assets reflects chosen methods, not intrinsic biological qualities — Kean Birch, Rethinking Value in the Bio-economy:…, 78 (+1 more)

Related

• Accounting for biological assets reflects chosen methods, not intrinsic biological qualities (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Accounting for biological assets reflects chosen methods, not intrinsic biological qualities #exemplifies (0.85) — Kean Birch, Rethinking Value in the Bio-economy, 78
• Sustainability accounting quantifies some impacts while obscuring hard-to-measure ones #qualifies (0.80) — Gerald F. Davis & Suntae Kim, Financialization of the Economy, 88
• Timing and accounting rules, not the hedge itself, sank Metallgesellschaft #exemplifies (0.72) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 1641