Exploring professional knowledge: the case of accounting

This article explores the nature of professional accounting knowledge via an expose of the recent history of the Australian accounting profession and the means it employed to defend its privileged status in the face of widespread criticisms of its technical practices. Central to the profession's survival strategy was the imposition of particular accounting practices by fiat ('accounting standards') in order to coerce occupational unity and construct an appearance of cognitive authority. Subsequently, the accounting profession has succeeded in effectively redefining its role to accommodate better its epistemological circumstances. This has involved subsuming its traditional concern with the portrayal of a 'true and fair' view of underlying economic phenomena in favour of merely ensuring compliance with regulations of increasing number and complexity. The narrative highlights the ability of this profession to recreate its knowledge base to serve its own interests and to draw on the support of other powerful institutions in achieving this outcome.