{"title":"The translation of an extraordinary event and the role of accounts: The covid-19 case","authors":"Massimo Contrafatto , Laura Mazzola , Caterina Pesci , Domenico Nicolò","doi":"10.1016/j.cpa.2024.102769","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This article examines the dynamics through which an extraordinary event is conceptualized and governed, by focusing on the case of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy and the decision to implement lockdown at the national level. The emergency generated by the extraordinary nature of the pandemic led various actors to debate and confront in the search for a course of action for containing and mitigating its devastating social and economic effects. The process by which legislative and regulative initiatives were identified and undertaken can be understood and interpreted as a translation of the pandemic, whose outcome led to specific governing decisions, in our case, the adoption of lockdown at the national level. This translation occurred within a decision-making arena, which emerged out of the emergency, where various actors used different resources to discuss and take decisions. In particular, the accounts and calculative practices related to the pandemic played a pivotal role. Through the case study of the first phase of the emergency in Italy, this article offers theoretical interpretations of the dynamics underlying the adoption of specific governing and government decisions and the role of accounts; thus, contributing to the accounting studies relating to the governing of extraordinary events.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48078,"journal":{"name":"Critical Perspectives on Accounting","volume":"100 ","pages":"Article 102769"},"PeriodicalIF":8.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Critical Perspectives on Accounting","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235424000686","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BUSINESS, FINANCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article examines the dynamics through which an extraordinary event is conceptualized and governed, by focusing on the case of the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy and the decision to implement lockdown at the national level. The emergency generated by the extraordinary nature of the pandemic led various actors to debate and confront in the search for a course of action for containing and mitigating its devastating social and economic effects. The process by which legislative and regulative initiatives were identified and undertaken can be understood and interpreted as a translation of the pandemic, whose outcome led to specific governing decisions, in our case, the adoption of lockdown at the national level. This translation occurred within a decision-making arena, which emerged out of the emergency, where various actors used different resources to discuss and take decisions. In particular, the accounts and calculative practices related to the pandemic played a pivotal role. Through the case study of the first phase of the emergency in Italy, this article offers theoretical interpretations of the dynamics underlying the adoption of specific governing and government decisions and the role of accounts; thus, contributing to the accounting studies relating to the governing of extraordinary events.
期刊介绍:
Critical Perspectives on Accounting aims to provide a forum for the growing number of accounting researchers and practitioners who realize that conventional theory and practice is ill-suited to the challenges of the modern environment, and that accounting practices and corporate behavior are inextricably connected with many allocative, distributive, social, and ecological problems of our era. From such concerns, a new literature is emerging that seeks to reformulate corporate, social, and political activity, and the theoretical and practical means by which we apprehend and affect that activity. Research Areas Include: • Studies involving the political economy of accounting, critical accounting, radical accounting, and accounting''s implication in the exercise of power • Financial accounting''s role in the processes of international capital formation, including its impact on stock market stability and international banking activities • Management accounting''s role in organizing the labor process • The relationship between accounting and the state in various social formations • Studies of accounting''s historical role, as a means of "remembering" the subject''s social and conflictual character • The role of accounting in establishing "real" democracy at work and other domains of life • Accounting''s adjudicative function in international exchanges, such as that of the Third World debt • Antagonisms between the social and private character of accounting, such as conflicts of interest in the audit process • The identification of new constituencies for radical and critical accounting information • Accounting''s involvement in gender and class conflicts in the workplace • The interplay between accounting, social conflict, industrialization, bureaucracy, and technocracy • Reappraisals of the role of accounting as a science and technology • Critical reviews of "useful" scientific knowledge about organizations