with that institution is relatively peripheral. Micro-social accounting, for
example, focuses on measuring, reporting and evaluating the impact of
corporations on the environment. Those who investigate micro-social
accounting tend not to descend below the ``entrepreneurial'' level of analysis.
Macro-social accounting has traditionally been preoccupied with the
measurement and disclosure of the ``state of the nation'' and of evaluating
governmental performance. The home is usually encompassed within macrosocial
accounting systems due to the need to capture household production in
national accounts (Juster et al., 1981). Gambling (1974, pp. 177-83) has
elucidated a hierarchical model of societal accounting which integrates the
``mini accounts'' of households into micro accounts, which, in turn, feed into
macro accounts. It is argued in the current paper that the ``mini'' arena in which
accounting is practised is deserving of distinctive academic scrutiny as
opposed to comprising a ``satellite'' of a more grandiose schema of calculation.
There are some recent indications that accounting scholars are becoming
alert to the potential for examining accountings and accountabilities in the
home. Hopwood (1994) suggested the greater investigation of accounting in
everyday life and culture. Miller (1995) focused attention on accounting as
social and institutional practice. The household is an obvious site for research
into the manner in which accounting is constitutive of, and is implicated in,
social practices and daily routines. This theme provided the inspiration for
work by Llewellyn and Walker (1997) and Walker (1998). In her contribution on
accounting and the self-employed Boden (1999) has also urged the pursuit of
micro-level analyses by making ``a plea for the individual'' in accounting
research.
These initiatory contributions reveal that even if the household under
advanced capitalism is not the scene for the emergence of technical innovation
in accounting, the craft is prescribed in sites where the social and behavioural
implications of its usage are potentially as profound as they are in the
institutions which occupy the public world. The literature surrounding this
hitherto invisible accounting, though often buried in personal finance and
domestic management manuals, may have been as voluminous as the
instructional texts prepared for students aspiring to enter the public vocation of
accounting. It is also notable that questions pertaining to accounting and
accountability at home have tended to occupy the attention of parties outside
the accounting academy, rather than those engaged in the meÂtier itself.
The object of this paper is to illuminate some cognate interfaces between
accounting and other disciplines where the domestic arena and its inhabitants
are established as significant loci for research. The potentialities for accounting
research are revealed by presenting a series of vignettes of how accounting in
the family and household features in history, the law, personal finance,
economics and sociology. The paper attempts to reveal how practitioners in
these disciplines encounter issues in accounting. Although most of the
illustrations presented here are drawn from the UK experience, this is not
intended to suggest that research on accounting at home be confined to this or