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CORDIS

virtuOus futuRes: Alternative aCcounts for desirabLe dEmocratic Societies

Project description

Reforming social accountability mechanisms

While societal disparities and conflicts compel public organisations to envision more inclusive and desirable futures, institutions struggle with declining public interest and rising dissatisfaction with public accountability mechanisms. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ORACLES project aims to transform accounting practices into a tool for collaborative democratic action by embedding ethical and creative approaches. The project investigates how merging traditional accounting practices with creative methods, such as science fiction, can foster social transformation. It will then study specific accountability mechanisms, exploring how an arts-focused project in Palermo constructs alternative futures. Lastly, it will establish a framework leveraging moral and artistic insights to transform accounting and reporting into a force for the common good.

Objective

The challenge of ORACLES is to understand how the combination of accounting practices and artistic approaches can assist in the creation of virtuous futures for democratic societies. Rising challenges such as social inequalities, and conflicts are increasingly forcing public organisations to imagine different, desirable, inclusive futures. At the same time, though, democratic institutions are facing constituencies’ growing disinterest in general democratic life, leading to declining trust, and growing dissatisfaction with public accountability processes. ORACLES seeks to investigate alternative approaches to reform such processes, embedding creativity and morality into accounting, and transforming it from an oracle providing deceivingly safe answers, to a tool for civically engaged, democratic futures. The project will provide an analysis of how alternative, art-based accounts can be constructed and inspire social transformation, focusing on artistic productions such as Science Fiction (SF) as complementary to traditional accounting storytelling and practices. It will then move into specific dynamics of accountability in organisational processes, investigating how an alternative future is constructed within an arts-centred project in Palermo, Italy. Finally, it will develop a new framework to use accounting and reporting as a tool for the common good, harnessing insights from artistic approaches and moral theory. Results will be translated into actionable insights for EU communities and policymakers involved in the construction of better futures through the production of a dedicated policy brief, harnessing insights from the project scientific articles, and ensuring the knowledge transfer to both policymakers, and constituencies. Thus, ORACLES will generate contributions in the fields of accounting, organisation studies, and business ethics, and concrete policy implications for local, national, and international policy processes involving collective decision-making.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF

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Coordinator

THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
Net EU contribution
€ 260 347,92
Address
OXFORD ROAD
M13 9PL Manchester
United Kingdom
Region
North West (England) Greater Manchester Manchester
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data