Accounting and Science: Natural Inquiry and Commercial Reason

This volume is concerned with the intellectual intersections between the history and sociology of science and the history and sociology of accounting. The various chapters describe a broad shift from concerns for the scientific credentials of accounting to a recognition of the constitutive role that accounting plays for science. They explore the links between the ideals of scientific objectivity and different administrative and political values, look at laboratory practice in social context, and evaluate the emerging interest in the economics of science. The volume as a whole considers the implications of accounting for science, particularly given recent initiatives in the industrialized world to make science more accountable.