P04 SIG Accounting & accountability

Panel Members & Contact Details

Corresponding Chair: Iris Saliterer, University Freiburg, Germany, Iris.Saliterer@vwl.uni-freiburg.de

Co-chairs:

Deborah Agostino, Politecnico Milano, Italy

Enrico Bracci, Universitá di Ferrara, Italy

Bernard Dom, Nottingham Trent University, UK

Sanja Korac, University Speyer, Germany, korac@uni-speyer.de

Tobias Polzer, WU Vienna, Austria, Tobias.Polzer@wu.ac.at

Annette Quayle, QUT, Australia,   a.quayle@qut.edu.au  

Tarek Rana, RMIT Melbourne, Australia, tarek.rana@rmit.edu.au

Mariafrancesca Sicilia, Universitá di Bergamo, Italy, mariafrancesca.sicilia@unibg.it

Ileana Steccolini, University of Bologna, Italy, ileana.steccolini@essex.ac.uk

Summary

This panel investigates how accounting and accountability practices are evolving in response to complex public governance challenges such as climate change, digital transformation, and geopolitical instability. It explores the dual role of accounting as both a tool for transparency and empowerment, and a mechanism of control and exclusion, with a focus on resilience, digital accountability, and sustainability. Contributions are invited from diverse methodological and geographical perspectives to critically examine how accounting systems can support inclusive, innovative, and future-oriented public services.

Description

The Special Interest Group (SIG) on Accounting and Accountability seeks to advance interdisciplinary research on how accounting practices, accountability mechanisms, and control systems shape and are shaped by the evolving architecture of public governance. As public sector institutions confront compounding challenges such as climate change, digital transformation, issues of global security, and social inequality and fragmentation (often occurring in parallel), there is increasing pressure to adapt accounting frameworks to remain relevant and useful.

Building on prior years, this panel engages directly with the 2026 theme “Beyond Boundaries: Wellbeing, Innovation and the Future of Public Management,” thereby exploring how accounting and accountability practices are reimagined to foster resilience, promote democratic legitimacy, and navigate institutional complexity. We recognise that accounting can function both as a tool for transparency and citizen empowerment, as well as an instrument of control, opacity, and marginalisation. In light of this duality, we call for contributions that question and debate the constitutive power of accounting in both enabling and constraining inclusive, innovative, and sustainable public services.

The panel will bring together diverse perspectives that explore not only the technical but also the political, ethical, social, and performative dimensions of accounting, accountability, and control systems. We particularly welcome critical and practice-informed scholarship, as well as research from Global South contexts and marginalised communities.

To stimulate dialogue, we invite submissions with a particular interest in three interconnected sub-themes:

Accounting for Resilience and Crisis Governance

• How are accounting and control systems evolving in response to pandemics, environmental disasters, and geopolitical instability?
• What role does accounting play in building institutional, fiscal, and social resilience?
• How can accounting and reporting systems be redesigned to impact citizen wellbeing, equity, and quality of life visible and central to crisis-response and public value creation?
• What is the role of accounting in fostering social cohesion and social capital during crises, and thus in building community resilience alongside financial and organizational resilience?
• In contexts of democratic backsliding, how is accounting co-opted to undermine institutional checks and balances, and conversely, how can accountability mechanisms be fortified to resist such pressures, particularly during states of emergency and political crisis?

Digital Accountability, Algorithmic Control and Emerging AI Practices

• How are digital platforms, AI, and data infrastructures reshaping public accountability practices and opportunities for citizen engagement?
• What are the implications of algorithmic decision-making for transparency, auditability, and trust?
• What new approaches are needed to ensure accountability for ‘black box’ algorithms?
• How are skills and professional identities of public sector accountants and auditors evolving in the digital era?
• What are the ethical challenges and potential drawbacks in implementing digital accounting technologies, particularly regarding data usage, impacts on vulnerable populations, and algorithmic opacity?
• How do multi-modal, realtime, or interactive reporting formats affect citizens’ cognitive engagement, understanding, trust, and oversight capacity?

Accounting for Climate Risk and Public Sustainability

• How do public institutions integrate climate-related risks into financial and non-financial reporting systems, and (how) do they influence policy prioritisation and resource allocation?
• What innovations in green budgeting, climate audits, or ESG reporting are emerging in the public sector?
• How can accounting systems evolve from retrospective recording to prospective steering tools that accelerate de-carbonisation and naturepositive outcomes?
• How do the roles of public sector auditors change in the light of these developments?

Relevance

This panel directly engages with IRSPM 2026 overarching theme by examining how accounting and accountability systems intersect with innovation, wellbeing, and the future of public governance. The sub-themes foreground pressing global challenges that demand boundary-crossing solutions from resilience and digital transformation to sustainability and inclusion. The panel seeks to foster interdisciplinary scholarship that critically evaluates existing frameworks while also envisioning new understanding of accounting and accountability that align with the complexity and ethical demands of contemporary public service.

The panel’s themes offer strong potential for one or more Special Issues, which the chairs intend to explore with relevant journals.