This essay is an attempt to provide a
coherent overview of my research and
scholarship over the last two decades or
so. As such it is a compromise between
a revisionist history, an auto-critique and
a review essay. This compromise arises,
primarily, for two reasons. First, the
work I have undertaken in developing
social accounting has often been ad hoc
and pragmatic; it certainly has not followed
a carefully crafted master plan or
research design. Secondly, the work is,
inevitably I suppose, heavily context
dependent. Issues such as personal history,
changing attitudes in politics, business
and the profession, the development
of my own understandings and, very
importantly, interaction with colleagues
have all had major influence on the research.
Some of the work may only
make sense when seen in those contexts.