| Date: | Tuesday 15 May, 12pm - 1pm |
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| Location: | AUT City Campus WF Building, WF710 Auckland New Zealand |
| Cost: | Free |
| Contact: | accountingseminars@aut.ac.nz |
The objective of this study is to explore the accountability practice of an Australian Indigenous NGO.
Our study joins others who have shown an interest in NGO accountability (see for examples Awio et al., 2011; O’Leary, 2017; Kraus et al., 2017; Chenhall et al., 2017). The work of Ebrahim (2003;2009) as well as O’Dwyer and Boomsa (2015) highlights how social actors and social contexts are fundamental to practices of accountability. However, the social actor in the literature is generally conceptualised simply as a member of an organisation. Similarly, the social context is generally understood to be organisational contexts. While useful, it should be recognised that the social actors have memberships beyond that of the organisation (see for example, Ahrens and Molona, 2007; Neu, 2010; Fukofuka and Jacobs, 2018). Similarly, it should be recognised that the social context of the NGO is not just about the NGO as an organisation such as OXFAM (O’Dwyer and Boomsa, 2015) or RuralLife and Unison (O’Leary, 2017) but organisations who are situated at the intersection of various broader social contexts that may have different social norms.
We employed Bourdieu’s (1977; 1990 and 1998) thinking because it provides an interpretive lens to make sense of the richness of the social actor that is caught up in accountability practice as well as the richness of the social context of an NGO and how that richness comes to bear on the actions, reactions and interactions involving practices of accountability.
A qualitative field study design (Ahrens and Chapman, 2006) is employed because it allows the gathering of ‘thick’ data (Mahama and Chua, 2015) necessary to address our research objective. We collected data mainly from Fairwind, an Indigenous corporation in the desert of Australia. Primarily, we collected data through participant observation, document reviews, interviews and numerous conversations.
Our study shifts research focus from concepts of accountability to practices of accountability. Through Bourdieu’s practice understanding, we propose that accountability can be characterised as struggles with and against social actors to change and or reproduce the dominant understanding of the field.
(Presentation will be followed by discussion and a question and answer session.)