The endogenous construction of accounting discourses in a trade union

The exploration of accounting practices reported in this paper illustrates how perceptions of financial problems and notions of economic accountability develop within cultural and institutional environments that substantially differ from those of the business firm. The paper seeks to oppose a notion of economic determinism which, explicitly or implicitly, promotes the "ideal" identity between market and society. In contrast to such a view, an institutional and organizational embedded understanding of accounting is suggested as a more fruitful way of appreciating the nature and scope of economic discourses as they develop within a nonprofit organization. The analysis focuses on the ways in which economic functioning is interpreted and accountability developed within an organization that rejects stereotyped views of managerialism and conventional notions of economic rationality. The presence of endogenous fabrications of economic accounts is what eventually allows us to problematize the way in which the economic framework is all too easily seen to enter non-business environments as a colonizing force. © 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers.