Accounting for What Matters: Rethinking Public Sector Accounting and Accountability for Social Sustainability and Equity

Financial Accountability & Management

Submission Deadline: Tuesday, 30 June 2026

More details and submission: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/14680408/homepage/call-for-papers/si-2025-001055

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Public sector organisations face complex, open-ended challenges, including economic instability, continued austerity, misinformation, climate emergencies, and systemic inequities (Alford and Head, 2017; Barbera et al., 2017; Cepiku and Matrodascio, 2021; McCandless et al., 2022). These interconnected challenges intensify tensions, particularly between how to foster financial sustainability (local governments’ ability to meet and maintain future service delivery and financial commitments without substantive adjustments to revenue, expenditures or debt) while ensuring social sustainability (equitable and inclusive provision of public services that strengthen well-being, participation and social cohesion). Further, there are often trade-offs between financial and social sustainability (Grossi & Steccolini, 2015; McDonald III et al., 2024; Sinervo and Laihonen, 2024) as public sector organisations have been led to prioritise economic efficiency over other public values (Bracci et al., 2021; Hood, 1991; McDonald III et al., 2024; Steccolini, 2019).

Despite the importance of social sustainability, scholars have not yet agreed upon a single definition (Nilsson et al., 2024). Social sustainability consists of at least four relevant formative categories, namely equity, well-being, participation and influence, and social capital (Nilsson et al., 2024). Further, fostering social sustainability in local governments requires accounting practices and robust accountability mechanisms to ensure the fair distribution of public services and resources to balance the disadvantages experienced by marginalised groups (Argento et al., 2025; Stivers et al., 2023), promote individual and collective well-being (Gallhofer & Haslam, 2023), encourage active participation (Barbera et al., 2024; Licsandru et al., 2024), and strengthen social capital and cohesion (de Villiers et al., 2022).

Yet, achieving social sustainability in practice strongly depends on the organising and design of accountability frameworks and how resources are allocated, managed, and accounted for. Accounting and accountability mechanisms, however, are inherently non-neutral (Gooden, 2015; Miller & Power, 2013; Steccolini et al., 2020), shaping how problems are seen and which solutions are deemed viable. These instruments embed implicit normative assumptions, values, priorities, and power structures, inevitably shaping who benefits from public resources, whose needs are recognised, and who is marginalised or excluded. For example, performance metrics can produce a calculative-based narrative that blames victims of inequality while justifying disinvestment in critical services.

Against this background, embedding social sustainability into public sector accounting and accountability frameworks involves at least two interconnected yet distinct challenges.

First, operationalising social sustainability itself–achieving genuine equity, inclusion, and fairness–is already inherently challenging due to the implicit normative assumptions embedded within existing practices and instruments. Recent scholarship in public service accounting increasingly advocates for considering the meaning and impact of pluralistic values–including participation, collaboration, social equity and justice–on public sector operations, but significant practical and conceptual challenges persist in translating these ideals into organisational practices (Bracci et al., 2019; McDonald et al., 2024; Van Helden and Steccolini, 2024). Some elements of social sustainability, such as equal access to essential public services, procedural fairness, and transparency, align deeply with core liberal-democratic values. While shaped by ongoing political negotiations and contextual constraints, these elements require stable and robust accountability mechanisms (e.g., equity audits, transparency requirements) to be maintained and defended against erosion. In contrast, other aspects, such as specific resource-allocation priorities or methods of service delivery, remain contextually negotiable. For these aspects, flexible accountability mechanisms that facilitate inclusive deliberation, adaptation, and responsiveness are required. Additionally, professional values and expertise play a crucial role in operationalising social sustainability, as practitioners across different sectors (healthcare, social services, education) embed their distinct professional ethics, norms, and commitments into accounting practices, often using these practices to make their social contributions visible rather than being constrained by narrowly financial rationalities (see Lapsley et al. 2020). Equity is a complex topic, and the public administration literature, for instance, emphasises that it consists of promoting fairness for all concerning public services, particularly concerning access, processes, quality, and outcomes (McCandless et al., 2022). Thus, both conceptual and operational difficulties emerge. How is social sustainability both similar to and different from parallel concepts across disciplines? What are the conceptual and operational overlaps among and distinctions between the four major types of equity and social sustainability? What are the linkages between equity, the public sector processes meant to achieve equity, and social sustainability? How do differing notions of equity within and across governments impact the development, implementation, and evaluation of public services? How public sector organisational dynamics at individual, group, and agency levels impact not only what agencies do to promote equity but also how they define equity? The need for conceptual and operational clarity is paramount.

Second, developing organisational capabilities that ensure social sustainability persists despite disruptions (e.g., economic crises, political realignments). Resilience in this context represents the critical capabilities that enable organisations not merely to reactively ""bounce back,"" but to proactively ""bounce forward"" - swiftly detecting emerging issues, adapting policies, and recalibrating resources. These capabilities encompass organisational processes such as sensemaking, critical thinking, proactive information sharing, and collaboration, enabling organisations to anticipate disruptions, effectively adapt (Barbera et al. 2017, 2019), and maintain social equity under changing conditions. For instance, relying on austerity and cutback management strategies to cope with crises has proven to negatively affect many social outcomes in the long run. Thus, accounting and accountability mechanisms must embed and strengthen “bounce forward” capabilities rather than undermine them. In this sense, resilience is not merely about institutional survival or service continuity; it is the capacity that enables public sector organisations to persist in delivering socially sustainable outcomes, especially in the face of economic crises or environmental shocks. Thus, building resilience into accounting and accountability systems is foundational to ensuring that social sustainability and equity goals are not sidelined but continuously advanced over time.

This special issue seeks to bring together rigorous, innovative research that critically re-examines conventional assumptions and addresses how public sector accounting and accountability can be reimagined not merely as tools for economic stability, but for fostering inclusion, trust, and long-term public value (Licsandru et al., 2024; Brown, 2009).

Topics of potential interest for this call for papers include but are not restricted to:

• Conceptualising and measuring social sustainability and social equity in the public sector

• Embedding social sustainability goals into accounting and accountability frameworks

• Managing value trade-offs between financial and social sustainability

• Critical perspectives on existing accounting frameworks, power dynamics in the public sector, and their implications for equity

• Innovations in accounting that enable active participation, inclusion, and strengthen social capital and cohesion

• How calculative practices, classification systems and metrics can be used to challenge and reconfigure accountability frameworks towards social sustainability, rather than reinforcing the focus on financial sustainability

• How can public service organisations shift from short-term cost containment to long-term financial resilience, ensuring social sustainability in an increasingly uncertain economic landscape

• Theoretical frameworks for understanding resilience capabilities that support social sustainability

• The role of accounting in developing or constraining organisational resilience toward social outcome

• The interplay between technical accounting expertise and organizational adaptation in crisis situations

• Accounting practices that enable organizations to maintain equity commitments despite financial shocks

• Institutional dynamics supporting or hindering socially sustainable accounting practices

• In-depth case studies exploring the role of accounting in specific social contexts (healthcare, prisons, education, social services, etc.)

• Longitudinal studies tracking the evolution of accounting practices and their social impact

• Comparative analyses across different institutional settings or national contexts

• Studies of digital accounting platforms and their implications for social sustainability

• Field research combining quantitative metrics with qualitative understanding

• Critical analyses of calculative practices and their role in defining social value

• Studies examining how technical accounting instruments become tools for challenging or reinforcing power relations

Guest Editors:

Prof. Iris Saliterer (Lead), University of Freiburg, Germany

Prof. Shahjahan Bhuiyan , The American University in Cairo, Egypt

Prof. Denita Cepiku, Tor Vergata University of Rome, Italy

Dr. Andre Lino, University of Essex, United Kingdom

Dr. Sean McCandless, The University of Texas at Dallas, United States

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