Making oneself at home with numbers
Financial reporting from an ethnographic perspective
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19003629 |
|---|---|
| Authors | D S Lopes (0000-0001-8202-1355, University of Lisbon, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 463-476 |
| Publication date | 2011-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0964-0282 • E-ISSN: 1469-8676 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1469-8676.2011.00174.x |
| OpenAlex | W1962358850 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 21 |
Quantitative reporting plays an important role in modern corporate organisations and most particularly in financial institutions, where it has been argued that large-scale statistical information has thoroughly replaced more local and qualitative forms of knowledge. Based on an ethnographic study of financial accounting procedures, this paper analyses how quantitative information is used by banking risk analysts, demonstrating that there is an inescapable qualitative dimension to every form of quantitative production, deeply related to particular techniques, expectations and interpretations that actors mobilise in order to make themselves at home with the numbers. The article also demonstrates that quantification does not just represent a means of reducing qualitative information to numbers and codes, but rather represents a means of converting information (be it qualitative or quantitative) into ever-changing standards and conventions in an organisational environment marked by growing concerns over issues of accountability, governance and transparency
Accountability · Accounting information system · Business · Corporate governance · Ethnography · Political science · Public relations · Qualitative analysis · Qualitative property · Qualitative research · Social science · Sociology · Accounting and Organizational Management · Auditing, Earnings Management, Governance · Computer Science · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Accounting · Finance
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,23 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2022 (10) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |