This paper takes its inspiration from Voth's [2000] work on Time and Work in England, 1750–1830 which argues that the British industrial revolution led to greater production levels not because of an increase in the productivity of labor but because of the larger amount of hours worked per week. This change led to a decrease of free time in favor of worked time. If this was the case, one might argue, accounting played a marginal role either in increasing the efficiency of the work force, or in disciplining the shop floor to guarantee control of the labor process. This paper argues that if accounting is to gain a crucial position in the history of economies and societies ‘time’ needs to be expressly posited on the agenda of accounting historians for, at the moment, it seems that the link between time and accounting history is missing. The aim of the paper is to show that if a linear, neutral and objective view of time is abandoned then the possibilities to study the organizational, social and even political roles of accounting will proliferate. This view is illustrated by moving from linear views of ‘time’ (‘time spent’) to more relative and constructed conceptions (‘time counted’).
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1 June 2005
Research Article|
June 01 2005
IS TIME SPENT, PASSED OR COUNTED? THE MISSING LINK BETWEEN TIME AND ACCOUNTING HISTORY: Focal Texts: H.J. Voth, Time and Work in England, 1750–1830 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000); S. de Grazia, Of Time, Work and Leisure (New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1963) and E. P. Thompson, “Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism,” Past and Present (1967).
Paolo Quattrone
Paolo Quattrone
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
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Received:
June 01 2003
Revision Received:
January 01 2005
Accepted:
February 01 2005
Online ISSN: 2327-4468
Print ISSN: 0148-4184
© 2005 American Accounting Association
2005
Accounting Historians Journal (2005) 32 (1): 185–208.
Citation
Paolo Quattrone; IS TIME SPENT, PASSED OR COUNTED? THE MISSING LINK BETWEEN TIME AND ACCOUNTING HISTORY: Focal Texts: H.J. Voth, Time and Work in England, 1750–1830 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2000); S. de Grazia, Of Time, Work and Leisure (New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1963) and E. P. Thompson, “Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism,” Past and Present (1967).. Accounting Historians Journal 1 June 2005; 32 (1): 185–208. https://doi.org/10.2308/0148-4184.32.1.185
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