Social Accounting and Public Management: Accountability for the Public Good

Social accounting as a discipline has challenged the methodology and focus of the larger field of accounting over the last 50 years. More recently it has taken on greater significance for other subjects as well, addressing issues for public policy and management more broadly. These include the issues of the nature of accountability in the contemporary plural state, environmental and societal sustainability, the ethical management and governance of public services and resources, and the creation and sustenance of social capital as an essential element of the modern plural state.

Social Accounting and Public Management brings together for the first time researchers from a range of disciplines including accounting, political science, management, sociology and policy studies to discuss and develop our knowledge and theory of the nature of ‘accountability’ in contemporary global society and the challenges it may pose for public policy and management. This book addresses this nexus of all of these issues and disciplines, and through this, makes a contribution to the development of the disciplines of both social accounting and public policy and management.

Stephen P. Osborne is Professor of International Public Management and Director of the Centre for Public Services Research, at the University of Edinburgh Business School, Scotland. He is also President of the International Research Society for Public Management and Editor of Public Management Review. He has researched, written and spoken extensively upon public management reform, public governance and the role of the Third Sector in public services delivery.

Amanda Ball is Professor of Accounting at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. She has researched and written extensively on social and environmental accounting, auditing and accountability in public sector organisations internationally.