The crisis of accounting representation: problems of social science or of power politics?

Abstract

This article seeks to clarify the factors that originate the problems of accounting representation. For this purpose, a reflection will be made on the theoretical foundations that support this important issue and the empirical references that

show this problems, to finally arrive at a proposal that bases new alternatives, accepting the principles that should govern accounting as a social science. In that sense, we will follow a qualitative methodology based on the bibliographic

review and the critical analysis of documents, defining categories of analysis that allow us to obtain sustained conclusions and to derive the design of the proposal based on epistemic aspects, in an effort to contribute to the consolidation of the accounting science. The results obtained show that we can effectively speak of a crisis in this field, which is materialized in the lack of systems that reflect the set of intangible assets, which finally will swell the world of financial transactions in the form of new products of this type. These products contribute to blur reality, due to its great volatility. All this has a common root in the dilution of the sense of social responsibility and the trivialization of public interest for lack of an authentic search for the common good. Given this, the accounting representation must go into these key aspects, so the proposal that closes this article is oriented to the development of four levels of information, with their own characteristics, which should be reflected in systems appropriate to its nature and the integration between all of them, thus overcoming the deficiencies found as a result of this investigation.