Layered fields of power: a Bourdieusian critique of sustainability accounting in EU regulation and beyond

Purpose This paper critically examines the symbolic architecture of sustainability accounting as it unfolds through recent European regulatory initiatives, notably the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's sociology, it interrogates how symbolic power operates across regulatory, professional and transnational domains to shape what is recognized as legitimate sustainability practice. Design/methodology/approach Grounded in a practitioner ethnography, the study draws on over 300 field artifacts, including assurance memos, stakeholder interviews and 120 reflexive observation notes compiled during the author's embedded roles in EU standard-setting and corporate assurance engagements between 2022 and 2025. The analysis proceeds through abductive coding using Bourdieu's theoretical constructs – field, symbolic capital, habitus and symbolic violence – and integrates postcolonial perspectives to unpack the epistemic consequences of global standard diffusion. Findings The paper identifies three interrelated symbolic dynamics structuring the sustainability accounting field: (1) regulatory contestation, wherein dominant actors mobilize symbolic capital to redefine reporting obligations in line with neoliberal market logics; (2) professional reproduction, whereby the internalized habitus of auditors and accountants narrows disclosure practices to audit-friendly metrics, marginalizing pluralist forms of accountability; and (3) epistemic domination, through which Western-centric standards enact symbolic violence in Global South contexts, enforcing compliance while silencing alternative sustainability ontologies. Originality/value This article offers a novel, layered application of Bourdieu's sociology to sustainability accounting, developing an integrated framework that connects field-level power asymmetries with practitioner dispositions and global regulatory diffusion. By theorizing sustainability disclosure as a symbolic field shaped by institutionalized misrecognition and epistemic exclusion, the paper enriches critical accounting debates and opens new pathways for research on decolonial accountability, reflexive professionalism and the symbolic politics of sustainability.