Skip to content Skip to navigation
University of Warwick
  • Study
  • |
  • Research
  • |
  • Business
  • |
  • Alumni
  • |
  • News
  • |
  • About

University of Warwick
Publications service & WRAP

Highlight your research

  • WRAP
    • Home
    • Search WRAP
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse WRAP by Year
    • Browse WRAP by Subject
    • Browse WRAP by Department
    • Browse WRAP by Funder
    • Browse Theses by Department
  • Publications Service
    • Home
    • Search Publications Service
    • Browse by Warwick Author
    • Browse Publications service by Year
    • Browse Publications service by Subject
    • Browse Publications service by Department
    • Browse Publications service by Funder
  • Help & Advice
University of Warwick

The Library

  • Login
  • Admin

Managing climate change by the numbers in a UK energy company : the double-disciplinary power of accounting

Tools
- Tools
+ Tools

Quayle, Annette Maree (2013) Managing climate change by the numbers in a UK energy company : the double-disciplinary power of accounting. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Research output not available from this repository, contact author.
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b2709473~S1

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

This thesis explores the modern power of accounting in shaping individuals, organisations and society. It does so by examining a series of theoretical, empirical and historical issues at the intersection of accounting and climate change. Accounting’s modern power is studied from a disciplinary perspective derived from the work of Michel Foucault (Foucault, 1977) and Hoskin & Macve (1986; 1988) and concentrates on those historical moments where power-knowledge practices change in ‘fundamental and significant ways’. It suggests one such moment is at the intersection of accounting and climate change, where climate change becomes an object to be managed ‘by the numbers’ through accounting-based measures of control. These ideas are examined through two separate but related modes of analysis. At a macro level, the research traces the emergence of the UK Climate Change Act (2008) as an example of accounting travelling to a new governmental domain. The micro portion of the study examines the emergence of climate change as a new non-financial performance measure in a large UK energy company. The research suggests that the intersection of accounting and climate change was made possible by the modern power of accounting in tying disciplinary subjectivities and objectivities together whilst operating simultaneously at the level of individuals, organisations and government. Studying these interrelations provide a particularly apposite example of accounting’s double-disciplinary power to increasingly manage our world ‘by the numbers’.

Item Type: Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5601 Accounting
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Climatic changes -- Economic aspects, Accounting, Energy industries -- Environmental aspects -- Great Britain
Official Date: May 2013
Institution: University of Warwick
Theses Department: Warwick Business School
Thesis Type: PhD
Publication Status: Unpublished
Sponsors: University of Warwick
Extent: ix, 227 leaves : charts.
Language: eng

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item View Item
twitter

Email us: wrap@warwick.ac.uk
Contact Details
About Us