Globalisation, accounting critique and the university

This essay seeks to promote (further) engagement between critical accounting research and the globalisation literature. Specifically, it discusses (1) how that literature can help to characterise our times, (2) its present and potential future engagement with the critical accounting project and (3) some implications for the university. The argument proceeds by exploring the potentially fruitful connections between, on the one hand, the work of Castells [The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, vol. 1, The Rise of the Network Society (1996); vol. II, The Power of Identity (1997); vol. III, End of Millennium (1998) Blackwell, Massachusetts & Oxford], Held et al. [Global Transformations (1999) Polity Press, Cambridge] and Hardt and Negri [Empire (2000) Harvard University Press, Cambridge, USA & London] and, on the other, work published in Critical Perspectives over the last several years. From Held et al. (1999) is taken the notion of globalisation as a temporal process of world-wide connectedness mapped along the dimensions of extensity, intensity, velocity and impact. Taken from Castells’ volumes is a range of insights derived from the informationalist basis of globalisation. Hardt and Negri’s volume posits the emergence of an apparatus of rule (‘Empire’) that throws into the relief the possibility of an emancipatory globalisation. These various positions now have a particular relevance for academics and students as the impact of globalisation reaches into the inner workings of the university.