One of the main objectives of the conference is to join efforts with local initiatives to promote and stimulate the production of Qualitative and Critical Accounting Research (QRCA), in the Portuguese and Spanish speaking countries of Latin America. Another ambition is to help establish significant bridges between the network of Latin American researchers committed to QRCA, and the QRCA network from the global North.

The QRCA conference does not intend to provide magical recipes on how to engage with research and publish it in a reputable journal. That being said, it is realistic for participants to expect a number of potential benefits, among them:

-   Raising participants’ awareness that they are not alone in doing qualitative research and that there is a growing community of QRCA researchers in Latin America. The conference may allow participants to extend their network of support.

-   Exposure to in-depth discussions surrounding evaluation criteria of interpretive and critical research.

-   Opportunities to present working papers in front of an audience made up of qualitative researchers, and to receive constructive feedback from this audience.

-  Involvement in discussions on challenges and opportunities in publishing QRCA papers in international journals that are receptive to this kind of research.

-  Involvement in discussions on how to make research in Latin American settings of interest to an international audience.

Note that the authors of the most promising papers may be invited, informally, to submit their work to Critical Perspectives on Accounting once they have taken into account the comments received at the conference.

Some Topics of Interest to QRCA-2020
(NOTE: the list is not exhaustive, just illustrative)

• How corporate governance is sustained in a Latin American context – and the range of inequalities it engenders
• Frontstage versus backstage surrounding social and environmental initiatives in Latin American organizations
• Emancipatory initiatives in the accounting and management area.
• How international organizations impact the realities of Latin American organizations.
• Organizations, as a context for human interaction.
• Difficulties ensuing from neoliberalization in Latin American countries, including in the public sector
• “Glocalization” as experienced in the offices of large accounting firms in Latin America.
• The role of accounting and auditing in fighting corruption: myth or reality?
• How accounting is involved in perpetuating class, gender, racial and ethnic inequalities.
• The role of accounting numbers in political debates: a masking or a revealing technology?
• Critical accounting and management education: perpetuating or fighting against “business as usual”?
• Interpretive and critical research in accounting: where do we stand in Latin America?
• Indigenous or native Latin American accounting thinking: celebrating local knowledge.
• Possibilities for subaltern voices in accounting.
• Studies of accounting’s role, as a means of “remembering” the subject’s social and conflictual character.
• The role (and consequences) of sustainability accounting in promoting discourses and images consistent with the claim of corporate social responsibility.
• Critical environmental accounting and extinction accounting.
• The relationship between accounting technologies and the state in different social contexts.
• Critical Management Studies in Latin America and interface with accounting.
• Power, discourse, strategy in conglomerates or economic groups.
• Philosophical perspectives in accounting research.
• Relevance of historical perspective in critical accounting.
• Critical studies in taxation.
• Political economy of accounting
• Investigating the spread of neoliberal teaching and the emancipatory potential of critical teaching – teaching experiences in Latin America.

Key Dates and Deadlines:

1. May 1, 2020 Beginning of first round submissions
2. May 31, 2020 Deadline for first round submissions
3. July 15, 2020 Communication of acceptance and rejection decisions (1st round)
4. July 20, 2020 Beginning of second round submissions
5. August 20, 2020 Deadline for second round submissions
6. September 20, 2020 Communication of acceptance and rejection decisions (2nd round)
7. September 30 - November 01 Period for conference registration (online)
8. October, 15, 2020 Deadline for Special Submission For Graduate Students Project
9. November 9-13, 2020 QRCA Conference (online - partially interactive and partially asynchronous)