Accountability, Philosophy and the Natural Environment

Using a philosophical and interdisciplinary approach, this book looks at how accountability can provide solutions to our current environmental and global political problems. When a social system has external elements imposed upon it, or presented to it, political problems are likely to emerge. This book demonstrates that what is needed are connecting social elements with a natural affinity to bring people together despite their differences. This book is different from others in the field. It provides new insights by critiquing the extant understandings of accountability and expands the possibilities by building on Charles Taylor's philosophies. Central to the argument of the book are perspectives on authenticity and expressivism which are found to provide a radical reworking of our understanding of being in the world, and a starting point for rethinking the way individuals and communities ought to be dealing politically with accountability and ecological crises. The argument builds to an accountability perspective that utilises work from interpretivism, liberalism, and postmodern theory. The book will be of interest to researchers in environmental philosophy, critical perspectives on accounting, corporate governance, corporate social reporting, and environmental accounting.

Glen Lehman is Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow in the School of Accounting and Information System, University of South Australia.

Introduction PART I. Critical accountability. 1. Key themes in accountability research. 2. The art of interpretation and Nature. 3. Markets, the business case, and interpretivism. 4. Postmodernism and interpretivism: Basic issues. 5. The public sphere, corporations, and society. 6. External relations: Re-engaging the company with the community in which it operates. PART II: Philosophical perspectives. 7. Basic concepts in accountability research: Key accountability theorists and issues. 8. Basic issues in accountability: Interpretivism, openness, and transparency. 9. Liberal accountability: Current environmental and social challenges and policy. 10. Critical and radical accounting and accountability: Basic philosophical issues in accountability research. PART III. The environment. 11. Deep ecology and interpretivism. 12. Deep Ecology, community and interpretation. 13. Perspectives on Deep Ecology: Basic issues. 14. Deep Ecology and interpretation: Social Ecology and how people relate to the world. 15. Perspectives on Nature: An environmental values perspective. 16. New directions for environmental democracy .