Emerging Scholars Seminar Series
About
We are running our quarterly AARN seminar series focused on promoting emerging scholars' research. Our focus will be on rotating across continents to have more representation and incorporate for different time zones.
Our seventh guest presenter is Tiffany Leung
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The seminar will be at the following time:
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Sydney (Australia - NSW) Tue, 24 October 2023 12:00 PM
Toronto (Canada - Quebec) Mon, 23 October 2023 9:00 PM
Rio De Janeiro (Brazil) Mon, 23 October 2023 10:00 PM
London (United Kingdom) Tue, 24 October 2023 2:00 AM
Macau (Macau) Tue, 24 Oct 2023 9:00 AM
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Zoom link: contact us (will be provided in September Newsletter)
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Title : Second Language Learning Through a Charitable Trust-Initiated Project for Ethnic Minority Children in Hong Kong
Abstract
We present an in-depth case study of a project, “C for Chinese” (CFC), commissioned by a large charities trust in Hong Kong. The project aims to enhance the Chinese proficiency and social integration of non-Chinese speaking (NCS) ethnic minority (EM) kindergarten students through a home-school-community model of language acquisition. We draw on 32 in-depth interviews with diverse stakeholders, conducted between October 2021 and January 2022. Concepts of Communities of Practice (CoP) and programmed organizational learning (POL), along with intergroup contact theory (ICT) were applied in the analysis. The CFC project was helping to develop and sustain the practices within the CoPs through POL, boundary objects, and boundary-spanning facilitators. Cross-cultural activities were authorized and organized by social workers and teachers in accordance with the principles of ICT. This study goes beyond the technicalities of language learning and suggests ways to promote closer intercultural relations and more inclusive communities. Developing proficiency in Chinese language competence is a fundamental step toward social integration and improved life chances for EM children in Hong Kong. We analyze the factors that have been contributing to or detracting from the effectiveness of the CFC project.
BIO
Dr Tiffany C. H. Leung is an Assistant Professor and BBA programme coordinator in the Faulty of Business at the City University of Macau, China. She gained her doctorate from the School of Management at the University of St Andrews (Scotland). Her research interests are environmental, social and governance (ESG), social and environmental accounting (SEA), corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business ethics. She won “Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence” in 2017. She was the Co-Principal investigator of Inter-Institutional Development Scheme (IIDS), team members of Institutional Development Scheme (IDS), and funded research projects in Hong Kong. Tiffany is the coordinator in the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR) North Asia Office in Hong Kong and Macau. Besides, she serves as the Editorial board of Social and Environmental Accounting Journal, the board member of Accounting Forum, and an ad hoc reviewer in a number of accounting and management journals. She also published over 10 peer-reviewed articles in accounting, management, and business ethics journals.
Our sixth guest presenter is Ellie Norries (Charles Darwin University)
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The seminar will be at the following time:
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Darwin (Australia - Northern Territory) Tue, 6 June 2023 9.00 AM
Québec (Canada - Quebec) Mon, 5 June 2023 7.30 PM
Brasilia (Brazil - Rio de Janeiro) Mon, 5 June 2023 8.30 PM
Sydney (Australia - New South Wales) Tue, 6 June 2023 9.30 AM
Paris (France - Île-de-France) Tue, 6 June 2023 1.30 AM
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Zoom link: contact us
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Title : Telling the money story: CFO reporting to directors of First Nations NFPs
Abstract
Studies of not-for-profit (NFP) reporting have highlighted a disengagement among report users with financial information. At board level, there is an expectation that NFP directors will have the financial acumen required to understand financial reports for stewardship and decision-making purposes. Yet this expectation is frequently not met by directors’ financial expertise. It is therefore incumbent on CFOs to ensure that directors are equipped with relevant information to support decision making. This qualitative study combines interviews with CFOs and directors of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-controlled NFPs and case study research to examine the communication of financial information to the board. The findings suggest greater support to the sector is required from accounting standard setters, regulators and professional bodies to encourage clearer presentation and narrative communication of financial performance.
BIO
Ellie Norris is a final year PhD candidate in Accounting with the Faculty of Arts and Society at Charles Darwin University. She is a qualified accountant (CGMA, CPA), and has degrees in International Relations and Economics from Stanford University and the University of Oxford. Ellie’s career has spanned more than 13 years’ experience in finance management and accounting, principally within the not-for-profit sector, including most recently the role of Finance Manager for a large Aboriginal Corporation in Alice Springs in Central Australia. Her research interests include impact measurement, accountability and governance for community controlled not-for-profits.
Our fifth guest presenter is Shoaib Ahmed (University of Sussex).
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The seminar will be at the following time:
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Brighton (United Kingdom) 1 March 2023, 7PM
Paris (France – Paris) 1 March 2023, 8PM
Montréal (Canada – Quebec) 1 March 2023, 2PM
Sydney (Australia – New South Wales) 2 March 2023, 6AM
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil – Rio de Janeiro) 1 March 2023, 4PM
Kuala lumpur (Malaysia) 2 March 2023, 3AM
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Zoom link: contact us
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Title : Wage theft, secrecy, and derealization of ‘ideal workers’ in the Bangladesh garment industry
Abstract
In this article, I illuminate Judith Butler’s concept of ‘derealization’ in the context of the global value chain (GVC). Drawing on a longitudinal case study in the Bangladesh garment industry (BGI), I reveal that wage theft and secrecy have emerged as dominating forms of organizational violence which are inflicted against the bodies and minds of ‘ideal workers’. I argue that an ‘ideal worker’ is contextualized and constructed through the discourses of workers’ vulnerabilities. Unlike Western societies, ‘ideal workers’ in the GVC are marginalized, young, and childless women who are extremely vulnerable and, hence, have less agency to resist organizational violence. The discourses of precariousness, dehumanization, dispossession, and displacement further make them derealized – a condition where ‘ideal workers’ are neither alive nor dead, but treated like animals and, hence, endure intracorporeal and psychic violence. The violence is, however, justified through the discourse of economic development and empowerment of women. This study highlights that the rise of neoliberal capitalism, state economic dependency, and socioeconomic vulnerabilities of marginalized women can create a group of ‘ideal workers’ in the GVC who can then be derealized through organizational violence.
BIO
Dr Shoaib Ahmed is a Lecturer in Accounting at the University of Sussex Business School. Previously he worked at the University of Essex, where he finished his PhD in accounting. Shoaib is a critical accounting researcher who primarily investigates the presence and absence of accounting and its relationship with the reproduction of elites and their hegemonies (e.g., exclusion and inequality), modern slavery, organizational violence, and workplace bullying. His works are published in Work, Employment and Society, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, and Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.
Our fourth guest presenter is Sedzani Musundwa (University of South Africa).
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The seminar will be at the following time:
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Cape Town (South Africa) 27 September 2022, 14.00.00 SAST UTC+2 hours
Paris (France – Paris) 27 September 2022, 14.00.00 CEST UTC+2 hours
Montréal (Canada – Quebec) 27 September 2022, 8.00.00 EDT UTC-4 hours
Sydney (Australia – New South Wales) 27 September 2022, 22.00.00 AEST UTC+10 hours
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil – Rio de Janeiro) 27 September 2022, 9.00.00 BRT UTC-3 hours
Corresponding UTC (GMT) 27 September 2022, 12.00.00
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Zoom link: contact us
Title : Exploring the alternative
TOPIC
In my PhD I conducted semi-structured (oral history) interviews with marginalised Black CAs in the South African (SA) Chartered Accountancy profession. My findings were mainly that socioeconomics were used as a basis to effect tacit exclusion of the black population from the profession. Most importantly, none of the participants felt that they belonged, even though they had attained certification. 5 of my 20 participants have also since migrated to the UK with no prospects of returning to South Africa anytime soon. Bearing in mind that they come from a marginalised population group in SA, and they would essentially be marginalised in the UK (now immigrants and Black), I am keen to conduct follow up interviews to establish what inspired the move. Also given that they have been there for more than a year (ranges 1-5 years), how does the experience of being an accounting professional compare with South Africa?
BIO
Sedzani Musundwa is a senior lecturer in Accounting at the University of South Africa. She was certified as a Chartered Accountant before moving into academia. Her two sets of expertise (education and accounting) have contributed to her identifying her research niche area. Her interest lies in exploring and reporting the experiences of marginalised populations within the accounting profession. She believes that illuminating these experiences will contribute to alternative narratives of what we believe to be factual and accurate about accounting.
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Our third guest presenter is Intan Farhana, Universiti Sains Malaysia
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The seminar will be at the following time:
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Penang, Malaysia MYT (UTC+8), June 14, Tuesday, 9.00am
Banda Ache, Indonesia WIB (UTC+7), June 14, Tuesday, 8.00am
Sydney, Australia AEST (UTC+10), June 14, Tuesday, 11.00am
Quebec, Canada EDT (UTC+4), June 13, Monday, 9.00pm
London, United Kingdom BST (UTC+1), June 14, Tuesday, 2.00 am
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Zoom link: contact us
Accountability and the Art of Compromising: a closer look at government budget approval processes
ABSTRACT
Budget mechanisms in the public sector differ significantly from the private sector, as political and public legitimation pressures are involved in the public sector budget process that are either absent or less important in the private sector. The governmental budget process also involves political power, as there are multiple political relationships engaged with different interests, indicating the complexity of public sector relationships and leading to deeper complexity in its accountability. In Aceh province, Indonesia, the government budget showed significant problems in its budget cycle with the budget being approved late almost every year. Thus, my masters research engaged in investigating the reasons for these delays, along with their impacts on budget execution, through a case-based study with an interpretive data analysis. The findings showed that the key reasons for the budget delays were miscommunications and heated debates in budget discussions between Aceh’s legislature and executive government resulting from conflicts of interest and priorities. Their compromising arrangements in the budgeting process also highlight how an art of compromising can play a significant role in resolving the conflicting interests of the actors, but may also possible to cause problems for accountability. In my research, I analysed the findings through three linked accountability frameworks: considering accountability through relationship, responsibility, and answerability dimensions, Boltanski and Thévenot’s (1999) Sociology of Worth (SoW) framework, and Islamic accountability. The analysis generated new ideas for the classification of SoW’s orders of worth when applied to public budgeting and accountability in a devout Muslim society and outlined some challenges in implementing Islamic principles and values into government budgeting.
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Our second guest presenter is Eduardo Bona Safe de Matos (Universidade de Brasília - Brazil).
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The seminar will be at the following time:
Québec (Canada - Quebec)
Tuesday, February 8, 2022 at 3:00:00 pm
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Brasilia (Brazil - Distrito Federal)
Tuesday, February 8, 2022 at 5:00:00 pm
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Sydney (Australia - New South Wales)
Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 7:00:00 am
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Paris (France - Île-de-France)
Tuesday, February 8, 2022 at 9:00:00 pm
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Corresponding UTC (GMT)
Tuesday, February 8, 2022 at 20:00:00
Zoom link: contact us
LOGICS OF CRITICAL EXPLANATION APPLIED TO THE IASB REGULATORY PROCESS: A NEW WAY OF VIEWING REGULATION DISCOURSE
ABSTRACT
The IFRS result from a standard setting process guided by the IASB due process handbook, in which three principles are listed: (i) transparency; (ii) full and fair consultation; and (iii) accountability. Based on that, the regulator builds a discourse of independence and technicality related to good governance practices. However, I start from an ontological and theoretical view – based on the Laclau and Mouffe (1985) post-structuralist discourse theory – that politics is present in all social phenomena. Relying on this dichotomous discursive construction between technicality and politics, I aim to reconstruct the IASB standard setting process – through the articulation of social, political and fantasmatic logics – and to analyze moments when there are (in)completeness in the application of the due process handbook principles during the standard setting. To achieve this objective, I apply the Logics of Critical Explanation (Glynos & Howarth, 2007) to the IFRS 16 – Leases – standard setting. Thereby, I problematize the technical-political dichotomy based on the alleged expertise achieved through a discourse of atomization and independence of the IASB as an international regulator. After that, I describe the process with a new theorization of the IASB standard setting based on social (financialization; atomization/independence; good practices; constituents; and expertise), political (discourses of the economic substance; the need for change; the capitalization; the single model; and symmetry) and fantasmatic logics (fantasies of the quality of the norm; of technicality; of comparability; of globalization; and of procedural justice). For the articulation, I identify and describe the main scenarios of changes in the standard (construction of the need for changes, total capitalization of leases, symmetry between lessors and lessees and the joint project between FASB and IASB) in order to demonstrate its (in)consistencies. These (in)consistencies are also observed when confronting formal and practical discourses. I argue that there is an urge to build a discursive system based on the illusion of technicality. For this, strategies are used to control antagonisms, such as articulation by means of empty signifiers and constant silencing of (in)consistencies. The construction of technicist discourse in the standards setting, therefore, is a rhetorical strategy for purifying the process that aims to maintain the hegemony of discourse.
Keywords: Post-structuralist discourse theory, IFRS 16, International accounting regulation, Due process handbook, Good governance practices.
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Accounting for and as activism: A research journey exploring social movements, counter-accounting, and critical dialogic accounting and accountability
Summary: Sendirella George is an emerging scholar at Te Kura Kaute, Ture Tauhokohoko (the School of Accounting and Commercial Law), Te Herenga Waka Aotearoa (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand). She completed her PhD in 2016 and has since been working on publishing her findings and undertaking various research projects motivated by an emancipatory conceptualisation of accounting and accountability. Specifically, she is interested in exploring the potential for accounting to effect meaningful social change through social movements and counter-accounting. Sendirella’s research is also influenced/motivated by the works of critical dialogic accounting and accountability and agonistic democracy theorists. In this presentation, Sendirella will take us through her research journey in the alternative accounting and accountability literature.
Our first guest presenter is Sendirella George, from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
Date: 11 November, Thursday
Time: 11.30 am (Wellington, New Zealand time) ; 9.30am (Sydney, Australia time);
10 November 5.30pm (Quebec, Canada time); 10 November, 11.30pm (Rome, Italy time)
Zoom link: contact us