Accounting, paper shadows and the stigmatised poor

Walker, Stephen Paul 2008. Accounting, paper shadows and the stigmatised poor. Accounting Organizations and Society 33 (4-5) , pp. 453-487. 10.1016/j.aos.2007.02.006

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Abstract

The social implications of accounting are explored through an historical study of spoiled identities in state welfare systems. The processing, recording, classification and communication inherent in the accounting practices deployed in such systems have the potential to (re)construct identities, inform perceptions of self and impact on the social relationships of the welfare claimant. The paper examines these potentialities through an investigation of the accounting regime attending the system of poor relief in Victorian England and Wales. Informed primarily by the work of Goffman it is suggested that accounting processes comprised degradation ceremonies which compounded the stigmatisation of the recipient of relief, accounting classifications served to inscribe existing and create additional spoiled identities of the pauper, and individualized forms of accounting disclosure compromised the management of stigma by the poor.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions H Social Sciences > HF Commerce > HF5601 Accounting H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) > JN101 Great Britain
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0361-3682
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2016 22:28
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/17787

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