For a social (and political) research in accounting

Drawing on Saïd’s representation of the intellectual (1994), this essay aims to reflect on the state of the critical project in accounting and the role of accounting research and researchers toward society in the current stage of the neoliberal society of the late 2010’s. To do so, we first expose the neoliberal system which encourages accounting scholars to become entrepreneurs maximizing research production and distancing themselves from interacting with society. We then question the social responsibility of critical accounting scholars and argue that there is an urgency to re-engage in social debates and with critical thinking beyond the classical topics of accounting research. We conclude by proposing some possibilities of agency for researchers despite the neoliberal frame of performance and publication production to better comprehend societal phenomena and the specific role played by accounting within them.