Accounting for Humanity

Looking back at my past research endeavours, I can see that I am an unfaithful researcher. Though never hesitant to commit to a long haul project, I appear to harness a sub-conscious determination to not be pinned down to one research area. My undergraduate dissertation: Fashion and Architecture, my postgraduate design project: health (via posture) and architecture, my masters dissertation: accounting and technology, and finally, my PhD thesis: Accounting, Technology and (arguably) anthropology.

It has never been an active decision to follow the multidisciplinary route, as an individual, I am simply fascinated by almost everything and find exploring the connections between to be even more appealing. For myself, nothing happens in isolation, just as noted in my pro-history post, every action and circumstance is the culmination of several interlinking instances.

Putting this concept aside, deciding to pursue multidisciplinary research has numerous bonuses (and challenges, ambition is always met with realism in my mind). In my PhD research, I have found the work of Mahmoud Ezzamel to be a perfect example to embody this. I cannot say if Ezzamel would describe their work as multidisciplinary, they may see it more of a specialist area within a set discipline however, either way, there is a case for the multi-disciplinary approach within their work. In my literature search, much of the work by Ezzamel selected relates to their in-depth studies of accounting practice in Ancient Egypt. In order to conduct such an analysis, one needs an understanding of both accounting and Egyptology otherwise, the accounting aspect would be speculative at best (already an inherit limitation in ancient history research) as the context that prompted the accounting practice would not have been fully considered. From this (admittedly very bias) perspective, Ezzamel’s research represents a ‘best of both’ scenario, you have to research both fields to gain the full picture. If your interest lies in Egyptology and accounting, why not study both?

Being able to connect your chosen professional field with your own personal interests brings not only additional enjoyment into your work, it brings the advantage of individuality into it. Noting my said bias, I am a passionate admirer of Egyptology, from the age of 9 I have been entranced by all things Ancient Egypt; the religion, the architecture, the social structure, the politics, the hieroglyphs (there was a time when I could read hieroglyphs, a skill I very much want to re-establish), every aspect of this fascinating civilisation encapsulates me and given the chance, I would write pages and pages about it. Thus, if I chose to combine this with accounting, I would have the advantage of 25+ (quick mathematics there) years of accumulated knowledge in Egyptology to add to my growing accounting knowledge. This is a powerful tool to have in your research arsenal, starting a research project with a large portion of the background work already complete is a marvellous place to begin.

In my own research background, notably my architecture research, I was able to combine a strong interest in fashion (particularly structural fashion) with architecture. I knew from my immersion in the fashion industry, both from researching and over a decade of constructing corsets, that I could find the resources I needed to understand and make the link between these design fields. In addition, this was a new and unique approach. Yes, there had been prior research in the field (and it was growing at the time) but I was there at the beginning contributing to the early discussions as to why these links were important. Both my dissertation and my design project were my highest scoring projects grade-wise and to me, this was no coincidence, it is the power of multidisciplinary.

As noted there are challenges in multidisciplinary research. You must remember that your professional field is the reason for the research thus, you have to keep that focus central and further, provide further justification as to why your decision to include another area is relevant. Therefore, it is beneficial that you have saved time on researching your personal interest area as, there may be more time needed to collate that justification. additionally, personal research is different from academic research, in my Egyptology studies I have never had to consider the reliability or ‘ranking’ of the source, before my dissertation, the term ‘peer-reviewed’ had never crossed my path. Thus, there may be a need to start to source more ‘appropriate’ literature sources to give your knowledge that much-needed academic foundation.

Thinking finally to my PhD and why multidisciplinary research is important (and beneficial) to research, and particularly social science based research. Humans.
Humans are at the centre of everything we do (perhaps understandably as we are humans), our actions as individuals and as societies are the very reason why professions, cultures, institutions and landscapes exist in the form they do. For architecture, it exists because humans want/need it to, and it is humans that determine how that architecture will exist. Thus, we can ask what then influences the humans decisions on making that determination?

In my deep-dive into technology and accounting, it would be absurd to suggest that technology alone changed accounting; technology (nor accounting) would exist without humans thus, the human element must be considered in the development of the relationship between technology and accounting. Notably we should ask what is it about certain technologies that inspired humans to make the decisions that would later impact accounting practice. That is, why did this technology matter but this one did not (for those over a certain age, think VHS vs Betamax)? To draw conclusions about developments and decisions in the accounting profession, (just like Ezzamel and Ancient Egypt) we have to understand the context in which it existed, what was important to humans at that time, what was influencing their actions, responses and decisions?

In the quest to promote multidisciplinary research, the aim is not diminish traditional single-disciplinary research. Naturally, within each field there is a plethora of discussions, debates and developments that should be understood after all, as noted earlier how can you make connections between fields if you do not have knowledge of each field individually? There is most definitely a need for single field research however, there is also most definitely an equal place for those who look beyond the boundaries of home. What can the ‘comfortable at home in my own field’ researcher learn from this post then? When questioning your research and/or findings, always remember that, when humans are involved, influence can come from anywhere.