The visual and material dimensions of legitimacy: Accounting and the search for Socie-ties

Francois-Regis Puyou, Paolo Quattrone

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

The aim of this article is to contribute to the literature on legitimacy by investigating its material and visual dimensions. By drawing on studies on rhetoric as a means of composing visions of social order and on an historical analysis of accounts in three paradigmatic eras (Roman times,Renaissance and Modernity), it shows how symmetry in accounts constituted an aesthetic code which tied members of a community together in ‘socie-ties’. We investigate the rhetorical process of ratiocinatio and explore how the visual and material dimensions of accounts provided social actors with an opportunity to explore their positions and ties within a community. This process augmented social actors’ understanding of their current relations by reducing them to a series of entries into an account, thus allowing them to reflect on what it meant to be a legitimate member of a society.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)721-746
JournalOrganization Studies
Volume39
Issue number5-6
Early online date13 Apr 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2018

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • accounting
  • legitimacy
  • material
  • Modernity
  • Renaissance
  • rhetoric
  • Romans
  • visual

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