Spotlighting the international historical accounting community and contemplating the future

Looking back and looking forward, this study spotlights the dimensions of the international accounting history community, contemplates what accounting is, and envisions its future. Extending and updating an earlier study by Carnegie and Rodrigues (2007), this investigation renders an understanding to the present day of arrangements for organising accounting history in various countries and regions. Specifically, the study elucidates the global dimensions of accounting history by means of associations or special interest groups operating in Australia and New Zealand, China, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the UK and the USA, and the positioning of the community in France. The study seeks to enhance understanding of the nature, spread and dynamics of this international community during the mid- 2020s, identifying several key drivers of the internationalisation and organisation of the historical accounting community. In contemplating accounting’s future – the fodder of accounting historians of tomorrow – attention is drawn to facilitating a global awareness and understanding of accounting as a multidimensional “technical, social and moral practice” for enabling “the flourishing of organisations, people and nature” (Carnegie et al., 2021a, p. 69; 2021b). This development is cast as a prime opportunity for fresh and exciting directions in accounting for shaping a better world.