黑料网 the workshop
How should accounting history be researched, interpreted, and written? This workshop will provide an opportunity for authors to discuss and develop ideas and papers for the forthcoming Accounting History special issue, Historicity in the Balance: Paradigms, Methods, and Myths. It will bring together researchers to examine how research paradigms, methodological choices, the handling of evidence, and the use of theory shape historical interpretations and the credibility of scholarly claims.
The workshop’s central focus is how accounting history is researched and written, rather than the investigation of a historical accounting topic in its own right. Historical cases can provide an important basis for contributions, but they should be used to examine questions of method, interpretation, evidence, or historical credibility that address the special issue’s remit.
Through discussion of work in progress and developing papers, the workshop will encourage critical reflection on the relationship between researchers’ assumptions, their sources and methods, and the conclusions they draw. Its purpose is to support manuscript development and scholarly exchange around ways to strengthen methodological rigour, reflexivity, transparency, and historical trustworthiness in accounting history research. Registration is open to anyone with an interest in its theme, including those with no intention of responding to the call for papers.
It is not a requirement that authors who submit a paper to the special issue attend the workshop.
The workshop is being hosted by the Department of Management, University of Bergamo, at Bassi-Rathgeb Palace, Pignolo Street, 76. It begins at 1pm on 6 September and concludes at 6pm on 7 September. For background on the issues surrounding historicity in accounting history research that prompted this special issue and workshop, see
Themes for discussion
The workshop will explore questions including:
When is reliance on secondary sources appropriate, and when might it reproduce questionable interpretations or persistent myths?
What historical context is needed to support credible claims about past accounting practices?
How should researchers address gaps, silences, and contradictions in the historical record?
How do researchers’ philosophical assumptions and theoretical commitments influence their questions, selection of evidence, methods, and interpretations?
How should historians interpret, verify, and corroborate accounting records and other primary sources?
How can source criticism and transparency help establish whether the evidence is sufficient to support a conclusion?
What are the tensions between understanding a historical case in its own context and using it to develop broader theory?
How do methodological choices create, sustain, or challenge myths, anomalies, and controversies in accounting historiography?
Call for papers
The workshop is connected to the Accounting History special issue, Historicity in the Balance: Paradigms, Methods, and Myths, guest edited by Alan Sangster, Martin Quinn, and Martin Persson. Authors should consult the call for papers for the full scope of the issue and its suggested themes.
Developing a contribution to the special issue
The special issue welcomes empirical, methodological, historiographical, conceptual, and critical contributions. Whatever their form, papers should engage explicitly with improving the quality and credibility of accounting history scholarship, rather than simply presenting findings about accounting’s past.
Authors may, for example, examine how their research paradigm and assumptions about historical knowledge inform their choice of questions, sources, methods, and standards of corroboration. Such a contribution should offer a reasoned account of the relationship between paradigm, method, evidence, interpretation, and warranted historical claims – not merely a personal statement of beliefs. It should demonstrate the practical consequences of those commitments and remain open to scholarly scrutiny. Authors may illustrate their arguments through examples from their own research or a specific historical investigation, keeping the methodological contribution explicit.
Practical information and enquiries
Anyone wishing to submit a proposal or a draft paper for discussion at the workshop in Bergamo, Italy on 6–7 September 2027 should contact Alan Sangster no later than July 4, 2027. Up to 12 proposals or papers will be selected for discussion in the workshop, with approximately 1 hour devoted to each one. Registration is, however, open to anyone. The fee for the workshop is € 200 and includes dinner on Day 1 and lunch on Day 2. Registration can be made at [URL to follow] until August 15, 2027.
Further details about workshop arrangements and manuscript development timelines will be announced in due course. Enquiries relating to the special issue should be directed to Alan Sangster.