Dissertation - Before Audit

The audit society idea has radically influenced our conception of auditing with its critique of the functionalist view that sees auditing as an objective verification of steady facts. The audit society thesis argues that auditing is a ‘technology of representation’ and auditors are involved in the construction of facts they are supposed to verify. In this constructivist thesis, auditing is an undefinable ‘powerful vague idea’ that takes different forms depending on contexts. The present dissertation criticises this relativisation of the concept of auditing but agrees with the audit society idea about the representational ability of auditing. Adopting mimesis as a conceptual framework and drawing on the works of Aristotle, Derrida, Girard and Dupuy, the present dissertation advances a thesis that supplements the audit society idea by arguing that before being a ‘technology of representation’, auditing or rather the auditors’ role is to generate imaginary spaces for representation.

Read more about Before Audit: Essays on the necessity of imagination

Chair

Professor Bino Catasús, Stockholm Business School (SBS), Stockholm University  

Opponent

Professor Henri Guénin, Faculty of Business Administration, Université Laval, Québec, Canada

Examination Committee

Associate Professor Emma Ek Österberg, School of Public Administration, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Associate Professor Johan Alvehus, Department of Service Management and Service Studies, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Associate Professor Thomas Carrington, SBS, Stockholm University

Supervisors

Associate Professor Mikael Holmgren Caicedo, SBS, Stockholm University
Associate Professor Gustav Johed, SBS, Stockholm University
 
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