Audit as political struggle: the doxa of managerialism clashing with the uncertainty of real life

Main author: Crewe, Emma
Other authors: Mowles, Chris
Format: Journal Article           
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id eprints-33127
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
topic HM Sociology
description Auditing firms tend to promote rule-bound orthodoxies about management based on the fiction that the world is more predictable than it is. Managers in INGOs find that long-term planning requires endless readjustment. This article explores what happens when these conflicting knowledge regimes clash during auditing. It draws on Bourdieu’s ideas to illuminate how different forms of social capital come into play in conflicting versions of management and control, whether centralised and prereflected or distributed and adaptive. In this case, a conflict during audit was resolved through negotiation and the establishment of alliances, showing how being audited requires complex political skills.
format Journal Article
author Crewe, Emma
author_facet Crewe, Emma
Mowles, Chris
authorStr Crewe, Emma
author_letter Crewe, Emma
author2 Mowles, Chris
author2Str Mowles, Chris
title Audit as political struggle: the doxa of managerialism clashing with the uncertainty of real life
publisher Taylor and Francis
publishDate 2021
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33127/