Editorial

Citation

Evans, S. (2014), "Editorial", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 27 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ.05927baa.001

Editorial

Article Type:

Literature and insights

From:

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Volume 27, Issue 2

Mapping the unknown

If your education involved dabbling or, indeed, a complete immersion in the classics, you may have encountered The Histories by Herodotus. This series of logoi accumulate as they build toward a major clash between the Greek and Persian empires. To better understand that event, he implicitly says, we need to go back a long way and work forwards, also looking quite widely at the nature of the world. That sounds like a Scholarly approach.

A rationalist and above all an observer of his times, Herodotus lived in the middle of the fifth century BC. He craved knowing much more about the world than just his own neighbourhood, Ionoa, and yet it was something about that place itself which likely prompted his curiosity since it stood near the border of two major cultures and political forces.

Herodotus lived at the eastern margin of a widespread Greek territory and saw its centre, Athens, with the kind of critical eye that distance often allows. At the same time, he looked in other directions, into the culturally and historically different Egypt and Persia, sometimes recognizing past events there that should have been salutary for the Greeks – especially those that involved the fruits of arrogance. In other words, he was something of an internationalist, in both thought and habit, given that he apparently travelled quite a lot. His counterparts today are tourists, historians, political critics and social commentators; what we sometimes might call citizens of the world. Like them, he allows himself to make personal evaluations.

So, if he did he not experience everything of his own time that the Histories sets out, it is still a fascinating world, and one that always promises more surprises. We might laugh at a storyteller who states that there are flying snakes in Arabia or that in what we now call Afghanistan some ants are larger than foxes, let alone what sexual antics occur in some locations, but Herodotus is painting a big picture. He acknowledges that the Histories are not necessarily always factual or complete, since what he recounts may be less reliable when from a secondary source, and then it remains merely a possible truth. In other words, he may hedge his bets or even cast doubt on their verity where that kind of judgement is required. On the other hand, he also wants to be inclusive because what he presents is in some way necessary to the forward movement of the story as a whole and even apparent digressions might contribute to the reader’s understanding of the historical forces at play.

Why talk of Herodotus? It occurs to me that much of the material in the AAAJ also concerns issues of observation and distance, judgement and objectivity, strengths and weaknesses in evidence – and, yes, even storytelling. Actually, that “even” is an unnecessary qualification as storytelling is arguably the key factor. Hold a reader’s attention without compromising the content of the story and you are halfway to making a case already.

Are auditors aware of the power of story when they frame their reports, or are scholars when they prepare their articles and conference papers? How much emphasis is placed on the judicious omission and inclusion of material for this purpose, and the use of a skeptical eye regarding its truth? How much has to do with the manner in which it is relayed to a reader? A creative writer might readily look at different modes of communicating as valid complements or alternatives to the standard business model. Was Herodotus both a storyteller and an auditor, assessing the evidence of what he was told in order to determine its worthiness for inclusion in the Histories, and to help his readers understand the push to war?

At the 2013 Asia Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting (APIRA) conference in Kobe, the accent was much more on telling stories than I have sensed at any prior conference beyond those focused on creative writing. It may be the start of something big in accounting research as we increasingly grapple with the complexities of internationalism while simultaneously trying not to lose grasp of their impact on individual lives. We all stand at borders, and they are looking increasingly shaky. Why not try variations on research and reporting that incorporate different ways of telling? We might get it wrong sometimes, but there might be great gains possible too.

Speaking of borders, in this issue, Cheryl McWatters offers “The customs officer” in which she describes an encounter with just such a person as she returns home from the APIRA 2013 conference. Is this a cultural clash or just an example of curiosity expressed between people of two different worlds at a point of momentary intersection? Kerry Jacobs places his tongue firmly in his cheek (I hope) when he ponders the reproductive habits of that strange species the accountant in his poem “Do accountants have sex?” I wonder if that question might have occurred to Herodotus.

Your own creative contributions can be submitted via ScholarOne (see footnote), and your e-mail correspondence is always welcome, of course, at: mailto:steve.evans@flinders.edu.au

Acknowledgements

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ) welcomes submissions of both research papers and creative writing. Creative writing in the form of poetry and short prose pieces is edited for the Literature and Insights Section only and does not undergo the refereeing procedures required for all research papers published in the main body of AAAJ. Author guidelines for contributions to this section of the journal can be found at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=aaaj

Steve Evans

Literary Editor