Making Sense of Social Practice: Theoretical Pluralism in Public Sector Accounting Research: A Comment

Abstract

This paper offers a comment on Jacobs (2012) published previously in this journal. Particular attention is paid to how theoretical pluralism may be defended on paradigmatic grounds whilst being mobilised as a vehicle of generating practice-relevant insights. My critique of Jacobs focuses on his ambiguous positioning of multi-paradigm research and the possibilities of developing some ‘indigenous’ accounting theory to render research relevant for practice. As an alternative mode of addressing these issues I propose a position based on critical realism and elaborate on how it may be used to stimulate and defend theoretical pluralism in public sector accounting research.