From quasars to bus stops and numbers - how a time-network is used and organised within accounting practice

Abstract

This paper starts out with a study of accounting practices in a Public Transport Organisation. A performative perspective has generated some interesting findings and leads on to some points that can be made. I have followed how activities in the organization have been translated and distributed with the help of actors and technologies. I can show that accounting practices are intertwined with the construction of time and place. The construction of time seems to be quite central, more so than a first glance reveals. It is a process that not only has importance for this organization, but also for many other parts of the world where human beings conduct activities. Accounting practices are intertwined with the construction of time. Time construction is an essential process that creates its own network, which not only supports accounting practice but also re-creates itself. Accounting practice, in turn, rides on the time construction network, gliding into every part of our lives. Mostly, this takes place with little or no reflection. This paper shows how non-innocent this taken-for-granted time construction is. In order to make it visible, it is necessary to go outside the organisation and to take a plunge into the network, as it were.