Social and Environmental Reporting in the UK: A Pedagogic Evaluation
Aberdeen Papers in Accountancy, Finance & Management WP 02-01
41 Pages Posted: 4 Feb 2002
Date Written: January 24, 2002
Abstract
In essence, this paper argues that the provision of accounts about an organisation can be viewed as being a process of education and is thus amenable to a pedagogic assessment. In providing accounts about their activities, organisations are educating those internal and external to their organisation about 'events' which have previously been unknown, or incompletely known to account audiences. As a result, a changed perception of the organisation, the 'events' described or some other change in understanding may emerge. Taking this premise as a starting point, this paper seeks to explore how social and environmental reporting (hereafter SER) may be evaluated from a pedagogic perspective. In undertaking this task, this paper draws extensively (but not exclusively) from the work of Paulo Freire (primarily Freire, 1996). We argue that Freire's work is relevant to the evaluation of SER because Freire focuses on the critical and emancipatory possibilities of education. In a similar vein, proponents of SER suggest that it provides some possibilities for emancipatory change. Evaluating SER through the lens of Freire's work sheds light on the robustness of these claims.
Keywords: Critical social science; Education; Social and environmental reporting; Stakeholder engagement
JEL Classification: M40
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation