Profile
My research is broadly concerned with the impact of accounting in our everyday lives. This broad interdisciplinary arena has two dominant strands. The first is concerned with the probably unanswerable question - why do we do what we do. In terms of accounting this would mean considering how accounting information or accounting's theoretical frameworks impact upon our decision making or actions. These types of questions surround accountings' potential connection to the constitution of subjectivity, the constitution of our 'common sense', naturalised understandings of the world and our position within society. It is possible that on learning accounting language, we also acquire a slightly altered subjectivity. In a sense, accounting could have an unconscious effectivity. The second closely related strand is concerned with the wider economic and social impact of accounting on people's lives. It is perhaps self-evident that accounting in its broadest sense impacts upon our everyday lives in the economic arena. It could be argued that the large accounting firms' consultancy wings are impacting increasingly on our lives through their advice to national and local government.
Consultancy, or policy advice given to business, professional bodies, government or regulatory bodies, not-for-profit organisations and other users of research.
- I have written a commissioned reports recently for UNISON on secondary stock transfer and the status of Scottish Water and its potential futures. The water report led to an invitation to the Scottish Executive to speak to SNP MSP's. I have given evidence from my research to the Justice 1 Committee of the Executive on prison privatisation and more recently to the Scottish Consortium on Crime and Criminal Justice as well as to the Local Government and Transport Committee on the Council Tax Abolition and Service Tax Introduction (Scotland) Bill.
Editorships and participation in editorial boards or conference organisation
- Co-editor of Critical Perspectives on Accounting
- Joint editor of the Journal of the Association for Accountancy and Business Affairs
- Associate Editor of Accounting and the Public Interest (Journal of the American Accounting Association).
- On editorial board of Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal
- On editioral board of Accounting Forum
Learned Society Involvement
- Have appeared on Newsnight, BBC and STV news, and on several radio programs.
For recent publications please go to Prof Cooper
Papers published in assessed journals
- Eliminating the Expectations Gap? Certified Research Report No. 28 (Chartered Association of Certified Accountants) (with P Sikka, H Willmott and A G Puxty). June 1992. 39pp.
- The Non and Nom of Accounting for (M)other Nature, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Vol 5, No, 3, 1992 pp 16 - 39
- M(othering) View on: "Some Feminisms and Their Implications for Accounting Practice", Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Vol 5, No, 3, 1992 pp 71 - 75
- Reading accounting writing, (with A G Puxty), Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol 19, No 2, pp 127 - 146, 1994
- Ideology, hegemony and accounting discourse: A case study of the National Union of Journalists, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol 6, pp 175 - 209, 1995
- On the proliferation of accounting (his)tories (with A G Puxty), Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol 7, pp 285 - 313, 1996
- Against Postmodernism: Class Oriented Questions for Critical Accounting, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol 8, pp 15 - 41, 1997
- The impossibility of eliminating the expectations gap: some theory and evidence (with Prem Sikka, A G Puxty and H Willmott), Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol 9, pp 299 - 330, 1998.
- A Tale of Two Classes: The Privatisation of Medway Ports, (with Pat Arnold), Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol 10, pp 127 - 152, 1999
- No Escaping the Financial: The Economic Referent in South Africa, (with L Catchpowle), Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol 10, pp 711 - 746, 1999
- From Taylorism to Mrs Taylor: The transformation of the Accounting Craft (with P Taylor), Accounting Organisations, and Society,Vol/issue 25/6, pp 555-578, 2000
- Insolvent Abuse: Regulating the Insolvency Industry, (with Cousins, J., Mitchell; A.; Sikka, P.; Arnold, P.) Association for Accountancy and Business Affairs, ISBN 1-902384-04-0, 2000
- The BCCI Cover-up, (with Mitchell; A.; Sikka, P.; Arnold, P. and Willmott, H.) Association for Accountancy and Business Affairs, ISBN 1-902384-05-9, 2001
- From women's liberation to feminism: Reflections in accounting academia, Accounting Forum, Vol 25, September 2001 Pp 214- 245
- Critical accounting in Scotland, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 13, Issue 4, August 2002, Pages 451-462
- Globalisation and its Discontents: A Concern About Growth and Globalisation, (with Neu, D., and Lehman, G.,) Accounting Forum, Vol 27, pp 359 - 364, December 2003
- Capitalism, States and Ac-counting, (with L Catchpowle and A Wright), Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 15, Issue 8, November 2004, Pages 1037-1058
- Making the Trains Run on Time: The Tyranny of Performance Indicators (with B Cole) Production Planning and Control Special Issue on Performance Measurement, Volume 16, No 2, March 2005, pp 199 - 207
- Accounting for the Public Interest, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Volume 18, Issue 5, 2005, pp 592 - 607
- Independently verified reductionism: Prison Privatisation in Scotland (with P Taylor), Human Relations, Volume 58, No 4, April 2005, pp 467 - 522
- A Discussion of the Political Potential of Social Accounting, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 16, Issue 7, October 2005, pp 951 - 974
- Deskilling in the 21st Century: The Case of Rail Privatisation (with B Cole), Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Volume 17, Issue 5, 2006, pp. 525-702
- Tackling income poverty through local taxation, in Poverty in Scotland 2007, eds J McKendrick, G Mooney, T Dickie and P Kelly, Child Poverty Action Group, pp106-110
- Prison Privatisation in Scotland, in Reclaiming the Economy: Alternatives to Market Fundamentaliam in Scotland and Beyond, Scottish Left Review Press, 2007, pp114-126
- It was absolute hell: Inside the private prison Capital and Class, Issue 96, Autumn 2008, pp3-30
- US imperialism in action: An audit-based appraisal of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, forthcoming
- The Neoliberal Project - Local Taxation Intervantion in Scotland, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, forthcoming