Teaching strategic management accounting with sustainability

Abstract

Current agendas such as decolonising curriculum, incorporating sustainability, and navigating the neoliberal global political-economic order demand a broader perspective on management accounting education in universities than the prevailing techno-economic taxonomy. With a critical social science approach, this paper first explores why current management accounting thought limits the consideration of social and ecological justice issues. It then seeks to broaden management accounting teaching by integrating ecological and social justice concerns into the Strategic Management Accounting (SMA) curriculum. Drawing from Deleuze and Guattari’s theoretical concepts of arborescent and rhizomatic assemblages, the paper provides a conceptual framework to contextualise, historicise, politicise, and theorise the techno-managerial particularities of SMA within a broader framework of strategising ecological and social justice. This approach encourages management accounting students to critically engage with professionally accredited techno-managerial elements of SMA while considering their sustainability implications.