Private governance and accounting for sustainability networks. (November 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Thistlethwaite, Jason; Paterson, Matthew
• Is Part Of: Environment and planning. Volume 34:Number 7(2016)
• Page Start: 1197
• Page End: 1221
• Publication Date: 2016-11
• Subjects: Private governance -- sustainability accounting -- social network analysis -- professions -- experimentation; Policy sciences -- Periodicals; Public administration -- Periodicals; Policy sciences; Public administration; Periodicals; 333.7
• DOI: 10.1177/0263774X15604841
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0263-774X

Abstract

Accounting rules and practices have become an important component of the governance of sustainability, notably in the field of corporate environmental, social, and governance reporting. This paper analyses the emergence and character of private governance initiatives regarding sustainability accounting. It does so using social network analysis in order to be able to conceptualize the patterns of connection across these different initiatives, and thus contribute to three specific ways that these initiatives are understood theoretically—as privatized neoliberal governance, via notions of professional epistemic authority, and through the concept of experimentation and experimental governance.