Acting on distances: A topology of accounting inscriptions Herv  e Corvellec a, c, * , Richard Ek a , Patrik Zapata b , María Jos  e Zapata Campos c a Department of Service Studies, Lund University, P.O. Box 882, SE25108, Helsingborg, Sweden b School of Public Administration, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 712, SE40530, G€ oteborg, Sweden c Gothenburg Research Institute, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 603, SE40530, G€ oteborg, Sweden article info Article history: Received 13 March 2014 Received in revised form 15 January 2016 Accepted 15 February 2016 Available online xxx Keywords: Inscription Topology Environmental governance Invoice Waste Pay-as-you-throw abstract Following on the reiterated claim that accounting inscriptions make action at a distance possible, we draw on post-mathematical topology to explain that this distance work is dependent on inscriptions acting on distances. By adopting a relational understanding of space, we show that accounting in- scriptions by themselves create the distances across which they operate. Our case study uses pay-as-you- throw solid waste-collection invoices in a new waste-collection program aimed at increasing the sus- tainability of waste management. By displaying weight and cost side by side, these invoices conduct topological operations that dissolve, create, and redefine the distance between people and their waste, between the economy and the environment, and between the city and its residents. The ability of these operations to mobilize a sense of environmental responsibility, enroll residents in the city's plans for sustainability, and translate political ambitions into individual behavior demonstrates that the per- formativity of accounting inscriptions resides in the efficacy of their distance work. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction: distances are not given Since the early 1990s, accounting scholars have devoted sus- tained attention to inscriptionsdor the ”durable institution of a sign” as Derrida (1967 , p.65) puts it. Inscriptions are any material expression of meaning that presents facts in the form of a sign (Latour, 1987): traces, spots, point histograms, recorded numbers, or peaks, for example (Latour & Woolgar, 1986). In particular, accounting scholars have attended to the ability of inscriptions to permit actions at a distance, in the sense of ”enabling people far away from the scene of activity to ostensively have a window on those activities and intervene in the name of better management” (Chua, 1995, p.116). The rationale is that ac- counting inscriptions act at a distance by creating translations that enable passage from one context to another (Dambrin & Robson, 2011; Edwards, Ezzamel, & Robson, 1999; Mouritsen, Hansen, & Hansen, 2009; Robson, 1992). Inscriptions have been found to act at distances that are geographical (Preston, 2006), functional (Dambrin & Robson, 2011; Jørgensen & Messner, 2010; Lowe, 1997), hierarchical (Ahrens & Chapman, 2007; Edwards et al., 1999; Ezzamel, Lilley, & Willmott, 2004; Ezzamel & Willmott, 1998), and interorganizational (Caglio & Ditillo, 2012; Mouritsen, Hansen, & Hansen, 2001), and distances that operate between a dominating center and its periphery (Bloomfield, 1991; Bloomfield & Vurdubakis, 1997; Dambrin & Robson, 2011; Lowe, 2001; Lowe & Koh, 2007; Skærbæk & Tryggestad, 2010). Accounting inscriptions have also been found to act at distances that are temporal (Qu & Cooper, 2011; Quattrone & Hopper, 2005); spiritual, in the sense of what separates the mundane from the heavenly (Ezzamel, 2009); and emotional, when ”at a distance” is used in contradistinction to corporeal closeness (Ezzamel & Willmott, 1998; Lowe & Koh, 2007). Yet, accounting inscription studies have devoted greater interest to the conditions for acting (e.g., Dambrin & Robson, 2011; Jørgensen & Messner, 2010; Qu & Cooper, 2011; Skærbæk & Tryggestad, 2010) than they have to a reflection on distance. With few exceptions (e.g., Quattrone & Hopper, 2005; Sundstr€ om, 2011), accounting inscription studies have approached distance as a given. But distances are not givens. As Latour (1987 , p.228) explains, dis- tances are ”produced inside the networks built to mobilise, cumulate, and recombine the world”, and there is a corresponding need for accounting studies on inscriptions to account for the terms of this production. To address this need, we have adopted a topological stance to show that inscriptions have the ability to define the distances they cover. The growing field of post-mathematical topology (Martin & * Corresponding author. Department of Service Studies, Lund University, P.O. Box 882, SE25108, Helsingborg, Sweden. E-mail addresses: herve.corvellec@ism.lu.se (H. Corvellec), patrik.zapata@spa. gu.se (P. Zapata). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Accounting, Organizations and Society journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aos http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2016.02.005 0361-3682/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2016) 1e10 Please cite this article in press as: Corvellec, H., et al., Acting on distances: A topology of accounting inscriptions, Accounting, Organizations and Society (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2016.02.005