9th Alternative Accounts Europe Conference 2027

The 9th Alternative Accounts Europe (AAE) Conference 2027 will be hosted by the  Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, in association with BAFA's Interdisciplinary Perspectives Special Interest Group (IPSIG), on  8 January 2027 (09:00–18:00). 

The AAE Conference brings together scholars from different disciplines, geographical contexts and career stages who are interested in studying accounting and finance as social, political, institutional and material practices. It offers a supportive and collegial forum in which participants can present and discuss research, develop emerging ideas and engage with critical and interdisciplinary perspectives.

We invite contributions that challenge conventional assumptions about accounting and accountability; interrogate relations of power, inequality and exclusion; and examine how accounting shapes social, environmental, political and institutional realities. We also welcome research that explores alternative forms of accounting and accountability and considers how they might contribute to more just, democratic and sustainable futures.

Keynote Speakers

Mike Power, Professor of Accounting, London School of Economics.

Theme: “Traceability: an interdisciplinary agenda”

Drawing on the recently published book Economy of Traces: Traceability, Tracking, and the Accounts We Live By, the talk will connect accounting with philosophy, sociology and organisation theory.

Mariana Mazzucato, Professor in the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at UCL and Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose.

Theme: “Economics of the Common Good”

The talk will draw on ideas from the recently published book, The Common Good Economy: A New Compass.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Deadline: 2 October 2026

Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• Accounting and accountability in conditions of crisis, uncertainty, risk, ignorance and unknowability
• Accounting’s role in producing, reshaping or challenging accountability and unaccountability
• Power, visibility, voice, silence, recognition and marginalisation in accounting practices
• Feminist, queer, postcolonial, decolonial and Indigenous perspectives on accounting
• Sustainability, climate change, biodiversity and ecological accounting
• Social justice, human rights, labour and inequality
• Activism, social movements, social conflict, counter-accounting and alternative forms of accounting
• Participatory, democratic and inclusive accounting and accountability practices
• Accounting in public services, public governance and the public interest
• Values, valuation, economisation, marketisation and financialisation
• Accounting history, globalisation, imperialism and coloniality
• Accounting professions, expertise, auditing, ethics, regulation and governance
• Digital technologies, artificial intelligence, data infrastructures, platforms and social media
• Accounting, political discourse and populism
• Accounting education and critical or alternative pedagogies
• Accounting and alternative economies, ownership structures and organisational forms

We welcome empirical, theoretical, conceptual, methodological and historical contributions from accounting and finance and from related disciplines, including sociology, political economy, anthropology, psychology, history, law, environmental studies, organisation studies and public policy.

We particularly encourage submissions from doctoral researchers and early-career scholars, as well as contributions involving practitioners, communities and other research partners. Research at different stages of development is suitable for the conference.

Submission Guidelines

The abstract should normally include:

• Title, author names, affiliations and email addresses
• Three to five keywords
• Purpose, motivation or central research question
• Theoretical or interdisciplinary perspective
• Methodology, where applicable
• Preliminary findings or emerging arguments
• Intended contributions

Submit an extended abstract of 500-1,000 words by Friday,  2 October 2026.

Please send submissions to the Alternative Accounts Conference team via email to alternativeaccounts-conference@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Email subject: AAE 2027 submission – [lead author’s surname]

Notifications of acceptance will be sent by Monday, 26 October 2026.

Registration

Registration details and further keynote announcements will follow. Lunch and refreshments are included in the registration fee.

Participants may also attend an informal conference dinner; details will be provided nearer the time.