Anniversaryism and the Pursuit of Authenticity in the Scottish Accountancy Profession

Accounting and Management Control

Speaker: Stephen Walker (University of Edinburgh)

Room T030

Abstract:

The results of an historical investigation into the pursuit of authenticity by a professional organisation are presented. Drawing on concepts of centre-periphery it is shown that Scottish chartered accountants utilised commemorative celebrations to assert their claims to historical uniqueness in a rapidly expanding and amorphous occupational field. A range of institutional, spatial, cultural and social centring practices were deployed during anniversaries to assert the distinctive status of the founding organisations of chartered accountants as the historic centre of the profession. The paper illuminates the motivations for the use of history by professional organisations as a strategic resource and offers insights into how they actualise such strategies in relation to authenticity work.