Philosophical Perspectives on Accounting : Essays in Honor of Edward Stamp

"Philosophical Perspectives on Accounting" commemorates the life and work of Professor Edward Stamp, founding director of the International Centre for Research in Accounting at Lancaster University, a pioneer in the development of theories for corporate financial reporting. Many people see accounting as a very practical activity, based upon a mass of complex, practical rules, but lacking any coherent theoretical explanation. In modern societies, accounting has a pervasive role in reporting the activities of organizations, including large business enterprises with many thousands of employees and stake-holders. Careful analysis reveals logical patterns underlying the mass of rules, some laid down by law, some less formal, which determine reporting processes. Accounting theory is concerned to make sense of these patterns. The authors, mostly qualified accountants, share interests in the philosophical dimensions of accounting. Some are heavily involved in framing accounting standards, while others study the processes of standard-setting and the challenges of the 1990s for justifying standards.