Drought, resettlement and accounting

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Drought, an insidious form of natural disaster, occurs frequently in the United States. The droughts of the 1930s were a national emergency which combined with economic depression to cause widespread rural poverty and distress. Governmental responses to the crisis during the New Deal were many and included the establishment of experimental resettlement projects for dislocated families. Operated by liberal, socially progressive agencies, these projects attempted to re-establish farm families on more productive land in less arid areas. One such project was the Red River Valley Farms Project in North Dakota. Here, business and home planning, budgeting and record keeping by client families was compulsory. Drawing on the notion of the ‘heroic bureaucracy’, this historical study reveals accounting as a key facilitative technology in the recovery phase of a disaster. The comprehensive accounting records maintained by each family contributed to their successful resettlement and provided the government agency with copious data for monitoring the performance of the project, measuring the progress of its participants, and identifying where support was most needed.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)604-619
Number of pages16
JournalCritical Perspectives on Accounting
Volume25
Issue number7
Early online date31 Mar 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2014

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • drought
  • accounting
  • recovery
  • resettlement
  • heroic bureaucracy
  • North Dakota

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