Critical Perspectives on Accounting (1997) 8, 149 – 165 PRACTISING CRITICAL ACCOUNTING PREM SIKKA 1 AND HUGH WILLMOTT 2 1 University of Essex and 2 University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK Critical accounting academics are increasingly being urged to enter public debates and disseminate competing discourses to a wider audience. In collaboration with the late Tony Puxty, for some time we have sought to engage with the UK accounting establishment through articles in the popular press, public meetings, meetings with officials, issuing counter- pamphlets and encouraging politicians and journalists to question conven- tional accounting wisdom. In this paper, we briefly reflect upon our experiences of engaging with the accounting establishment in the UK. ÷ 1997 Academic Press Limited Introduction ‘‘Accounting is supposed to provide a neutral representation of economic reality’’ (Financial Times, 4 October 1990). Such beliefs or aspirations ascribe to accounting an aura of neutrality and objectivity—in part, we contend, because accounting academics, including ‘critical accountants 1 , have been reluctant to extend their practice to encompass an engagement with the claims of conventional wisdom within the public sphere (Moore, 1991). Supported by lobbying, in-house magazines, friendly academics and profes- sional education, passive or active confirmation of such beliefs, the account- ing industry has encountered little resistance to the expansion of its jurisdic- tion (Sikka and Willmott, 1995a). However, perversely, because the influence of accounting in diverse spheres of social, political and economic life has become so extensive and pervasive, some have called for more direct and public forms of engagement with the accounting establishment (e.g. Reiter, 1995; Gallhofer and Haslam, 1997). The public sphere (Holub, 1991) is a wide arena in which individuals and groups who subscribe to dif ferent values and commitments seek to advance and debate competing discourses. In this sphere, as Thomas Paine argued, ‘‘intellectuals are expected to be like farmers, cultivating a rich crop of ideas and then giving the harvest freely away’’ (see Paine, 1987; Keane, 1996). There are many ways of giving away the fruits of ‘‘critical accounting’’. Competing discourses may be advanced through timely interventions in public debates about jobs, redundancies and their impact on local communities (Berry et al., 1985). They may also be advanced through various working parties and committees of ‘‘the profession’’ 2 established to promote and regulate the Address for correspondence: Prem Sikka, Department of Accounting, Finance and Manage- ment, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ, UK. Received 26 March and accepted 31 July 1996. 149 1045–2354 / 97 / 020149 + 17 $25.00 / 0 / pa960088 ÷ 1997 Academic Press Limited