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Research Group on Sustainability and Critical Accounting

Our group focuses on sustainability and critical accounting research.

Research focus and goals

The overarching question that our research group seeks to answer is whether, and if so how, accounting practices eventually help in the aspired transition to a just, socially and ecologically sustainable society.  Our group is theoretically and methodologically open-minded, and we often approach our topics from a critical perspective. We consider accounting to be a powerful social institution, with a range of impacts on various social levels. Thus, interdisciplinarity is a defining feature of our research.

Accounting has a strong position in both organisations and society more broadly as a function that produces information for decision-makers and various stakeholders. Accounting concepts and practices have an impact on individuals’ choices, organizational decision-making as well as on societal practices and discourses more broadly. As critical accounting researchers, we challenge many taken-for-granted assumptions by asking whether things could be otherwise. Following the tradition of critical research, power and power structures are often in the foci of our research.

The importance of accounting in societies also implies that accounting concepts, practices and information have a key role in organisations’ and societies’ pursuit of low-carbon, biologically diverse and less unsustainable social and economic systems. As sustainability accounting researchers, we focus on considering the social and environmental implications of accounting alongside the more conventional economic dimension. 

The aim of our research group is to undertake societally significant and scientifically high-quality research. Our group members lead, or are involved in, several research projects that receive funding from both Finnish and international sources.

Other members

Oana Apostol, Turku School of Economics