Purpose

This paper examines the contested value of healthy life and wellbeing in a context of severe austerity, exploring how the value of “Public Health” is constructed through and with material-discursive practices and accounting representations. It seeks to explore the political and ethical implications of constructing the valuable through a shared consensus over the “facts” when addressing complex, multi-agency problems with long time horizons and outcomes that are not always easily quantifiable.

Design/methodology/approach

The theorisation, drawing on science and technology studies (STS) scholars and Karen Barad's (2007) agential realism, opens up the analysis to the performativity of both material and discursive practices in the period following a major re-organisation of activity. The study investigates two case authorities in England and the national regulator through interviews, observations and documentary analysis.

Findings

The paper demonstrates the deeply ethical and political entanglements of accounting representations as objectivity, consensus and collective action are constructed and resisted in practice. It goes on to demonstrate the practical challenges of constructing “alternative accounts” and “intelligent accountabilities” through times of austerity towards a shared sense of public value and suggests austerity measures make such aims both more challenging and all the more essential.

Originality/value

Few studies in the accounting literature have explored the full complexity of valuation practices in non-market settings, particularly in a public sector context; this paper, therefore, extends familiar conceptual vocabulary of STS inspired research to further explore how value(s), ethics and identity all play a crucial role in making things valuable.

中文翻译：

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英国地方当局的公共卫生干预：构建事实，（重新）想象未来

目的

本文考察了在严重紧缩的背景下健康生活和福祉的争议价值，探讨了“公共卫生”的价值是如何通过物质话语实践和会计陈述来构建的。它旨在通过对“事实”的共同共识来探索构建有价值的政治和伦理影响，以解决复杂的、多机构的问题，这些问题具有长期的视野和并不总是容易量化的结果。

设计/方法/方法

该理论借鉴了科学技术研究 (STS) 学者和 Karen Barad (2007) 的代理现实主义，开启了对活动重大重组后时期物质和话语实践的述行性的分析。该研究通过访谈、观察和文件分析调查了英格兰的两个案例当局和国家监管机构。

发现

本文论证了会计表述在实践中构建和抵制客观性、共识和集体行动时存在的深刻的伦理和政治纠葛。它继续展示了在紧缩时期构建“替代账户”和“智能问责制”以实现共同的公共价值意识所面临的实际挑战，并建议紧缩措施使这些目标更具挑战性，而且更加重要。

原创性/价值

会计文献中很少有研究探讨非市场环境中估值实践的全部复杂性，特别是在公共部门背景下；因此，本文扩展了受 STS 启发的研究中熟悉的概念词汇，以进一步探索价值、道德和身份如何在使事物变得有价值方面发挥关键作用。