It is heavily influenced by the ideas of social theorists, including but not limited to Marx, Gramsci, Foucault, Bourdieu, and Said.
For example, Tinker's book, Paper Prophets,[1] developed a political economy approach to accounting,[2] while the book by Cooper and Hopper, Debating Coal Closures,[3] discussed how accounting functions as an ammunition machine within the public sphere.
Abe Briloff's article, "Accountancy and Society: A Covenant Desecrated,"[4] argues that public accounting firms have a social contract granting them monopoly privileges in return for protecting public interest.
For instance, a series of high profile articles by Prem Sikka, Hugh Willmott, and colleagues examines moments when public accounting firms have been involved in money laundering and other ethically dubious endeavors.
This theoretical vantage point follows from the writings of Gramsci, Foucault, and Said, and draws on the notion of "speaking truth" to the existing regime of power.