Privileging privatisation: Accounting practices and state transformation in the UK

Liam Simon Clegg; Chris Rogers

doi:10.1057/s41293-021-00190-8

Privileging privatisation: Accounting practices and state transformation in the UK

Liam Simon Clegg, Chris Rogers

Politics

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

How do accounting practices interact with processes of state transformation? Focusing on the privatisation of social housing in the UK, we clarify an important mechanism through which accounting practices served to constitute material incentives in favour of privatisation. Our archival research demonstrates that the UK government’s atypical practice of including public corporations’ liabilities in its own debt calculations shaped discussions and decisions over the transfer of public housing stock to non-state Housing Associations in the 1980s. By unpacking the constitutive relationship between accounting practices and material incentives, we advance and bring together scholarship on state transformation and the politics of accounting.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1
Number of pages	35
Journal	British Politics
Early online date	8 Jul 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1057/s41293-021-00190-8
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 8 Jul 2021

Bibliographical note

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Part of Springer Nature. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

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10.1057/s41293-021-00190-8

Privileging_privatisation_British_Politics_Pre_print
© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Part of Springer Nature. This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.
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Cite this

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