Critical and participatory approaches to accountability and sustainability accounting: systems thinking and critical reflexivity perspectives in complex institutions

The research aims to explore critical and participatory approaches to accountability and sustainability accounting, with particular attention to the role of systems thinking and critical reflexivity in complex institutions. The research will examine how practices of measurement, reporting and stakeholder engagement can move beyond technical, reputational or compliance-driven logics, becoming tools for organisational learning, dialogue and transformation. From this perspective, complex institutions will be considered as open systems, shaped by interdependent relationships, tensions among actors, and social, environmental and economic dimensions of value. The activity may include a review of the literature on critical accounting, participatory accountability, sustainability accounting and systems thinking, as well as the analysis of practices aimed at fostering inclusive, reflexive and change-oriented forms of accountability for real sustainability and long-term outcomes, too.