Lessons we never wanted to learn: pandemic as pedagogy

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is a reflective account in which one person who has been around long enough to see a good bit considers how COVID-19 might change the general contours of the world Design/methodology/approachThis paper follows a broadly based and relatively unstructured approach, based on personal understandings and whatever rigor might have been gained by a life spent thinking about research design and the limits of methodology FindingsThe opposite of what many others believe will happen is argued for Things will change more than we wish Most will change for the worse Research limitations/implicationsAccounting research will have a role to play, but to have impact, this study will require that researchers adopt a much more critical perspective about capitalism and its consequences than before Practical implicationsEveryone must do the best they can Everyone must learn to accept the new and not rage to restore that which existed in before times Social implicationsHarsher climate of interpersonal relations will be realized Originality/valueThis paper is more about change than about accounting A 30,000-foot level analysis that does not try to provide many examples An effort to rise above the specifics that vary across the world