Submitted by William Justo Figueiro (williamjf) on 2015-06-13T12:07:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 9.pdf: 10943937 bytes, checksum: 80b5f4f166aef1f41cf8270b9c1def07 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-06-13T12:07:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 9.pdf: 10943937 bytes, checksum: 80b5f4f166aef1f41cf8270b9c1def07 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-19 / UNISINOS - Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos / Esse estudo, de cunho etnográfico (O’REILLY, 2009) e fundamentado pelo arcabouço teórico-metodológico da Análise da Conversa Etnometodológica (GARFINKEL, 1967; SACKS, 1992) e da Análise de Categorias de Pertença (SACKS, 1992; SCHEGLOFF, 1972; SELL; OSTERMANN, 2009)), analisa duzentas interações telefônicas entre comunicantes e atendentes do serviço de emergência “190” da Brigada Militar de Porto Alegre. Os resultados da pesquisa mostram que as interações apresentam uma macroorganização estruturada em cinco atividades chave (ZIMMERMAN, 1984; 1992), sequencialmente negociadas: 1) abertura/identificação/alinhamento; 2) solicitação; 3) sequência interrogativa; 4) resposta; e 5) fechamento, em que o grande par adjacente solicitação/resposta se constitui na sequência central do evento. Percebe-se, também, uma forte orientação dos comunicantes para a solicitação de uma viatura, e dos atendentes, para o envio de uma viatura como o produto final desse par adjacente central e da prestação de serviço dos atendimentos do 190. Quando a necessidade do envio de uma viatura é posta em dúvida, a rotina das práticas de atender é desestabilizada, e o mandato institucional desse serviço é questionado, gerando consequências interacionais para a conversa em andamento. A análise dos dados revela a orientação dos comunicantes para suas Categorias de Pertença (SACKS, 1992; SCHEGLOFF, 1972; SELL; OSTERMANN, 2009) na produção de accounts narrativos (DE FINA, 2009) que buscam convencer os atendentes da legitimidade de sua solicitação de ajuda. Orientados pelo conhecimento socialmente compartilhado do que se constituem em eventos moralmente sancionáveis, ao mesmo tempo em que vitimizam o comunicante, os accounts narrativos produzidos pelos comunicantes constroem uma relação de antagonismo entre ele e o seu agressor, o qual é responsabilizado pelos fatos reportados. A orientação dos participantes para determinadas Categorias de Pertença também é revelada na formulação do local para onde a viatura deve ser enviada. O engessamento provocado pelas limitações do formulário eletrônico de solicitação de serviço é materializado, por exemplo, na necessidade de informação do nome de um logradouro e de um numeral previamente cadastrados no software utilizado. Esse tipo de restrição impõe limitações quanto à inserção de outros formatos de endereço – vigentes na organização social atual, principalmente das camadas sociais menos favorecidas – e que divergem do formato padrão, dificultando, assim, o acesso dessas pessoas à segurança pública. Verificou-se também que, para a manutenção da intersubjetividade no atendimento telefônico do 190, tanto o atendente, quanto o comunicante, precisam estar orientados para o atendimento das demandas impostas pelo software operacional, o que tornou possível compreender que a investigação da intersubjetividade nos novos contextos tecnologizados demanda que o pesquisador alargue os campos semióticos (C.GOODWIN, 2000) investigados. Da mesma forma, os recursos linguístico-interacionais mobilizados pelos comunicantes, ao formularem o local para onde a viatura deve ser enviada, demonstra a sua falta de letramento quanto às práticas sociais em questão. Esse estudo resultou em um curso de capacitação de 50 horas/aula para a qualificação dos atendimentos telefônicos desse serviço de emergência e na implementação de um processo seletivo interno para o ingresso na função de atendente, que também são discutidos no texto. / This study analyzes two hundred telephone emergency calls between callers and call takers at Brigada Militar (190), in Porto Alegre, from an ethnographic (O’REILLY, 2009) perspective and based on Ethnomethodological Conversation Analysis (GARFINKEL, 1967; SACKS, 1992) and Membership Categorization Analysis principles (SACKS, 1992; SCHEGLOFF, 1972; SELL; OSTERMANN, 2009). The results of this research study show that the interactions present a macrostructure organized into five key activities that are sequentially negotiated (ZIMMERMAN, 1984; 1992): 1) opening/identification/alignment; 2) request; 3) interrogative sequence; 4) response; and 5) closing, in which the adjacency pair request/response consists of the main sequence of the event. Callers’ strong orientation to the request for a police car and call takers’ orientation to the dispatch of a police car are also identified as the final product of this adjacency pair and of the provision of the service. When the need for the dispatch of a police car is questioned by a caller, the routine of the practices involved in the processing of the call is destabilized and the institutional mandate of 190 is questioned, and this fact brings in interactional consequences to the flow of the interactions. The analysis of the data reveals callers’ orientation to certain Membership Categories (SACKS, 1992; SCHEGLOFF, 1972; SELL; OSTERMANN, 2009) in the production of narrative accounts (DE FINA, 2009), which aim at convincing call takers of the legitimacy of their requests. Based on the socially shared knowledge of morally loaded events, at the same time that these narrative accounts victimize the caller, they also build an antagonistic relationship between caller and aggressor – with the latter being allegedly responsible for the facts being reported. Participants’ orientations to certain Membership Categories can also be seen in their formulation of the place to where the police car must be dispatched. The limitations imposed by the electronic form is materialized, for instance, in the need to insert the name of a street and a number, which can be retrieved from the database, in the address slot. This restriction limits the insertion of other formats of address – which can be found in the current social organization (especially in the less privileged social classes) – and which restricts the access of those people to public safety. It was also possible to notice that, the maintenance of intersubjectivity in emergency calls depends on callers’ and call takers’ orientation to meet the demands of the software, and this fact shows that the study of intersubjectity in new, technologized contexts demands that the researcher considers other semiotic fields (C.GOODWIN, 2000) in the investigation. At the same time, the linguistic resources mobilized by the callers when formulating the place where the police car must be sent to displays their illiteracy concerning the social practices of the modern world. This research resulted in a fifty-hour training program to qualify the call-taking services and in the implementation of an internal recruitment process for the position of call taker, which are also discussed in this work.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-04-19T12:02:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre Aroeira Salles.pdf: 1263118 bytes, checksum: de64c16cb711cc731313fe5b52060cb3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-19T12:02:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Alexandre Aroeira Salles.pdf: 1263118 bytes, checksum: de64c16cb711cc731313fe5b52060cb3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-04-07 / The Brazilian Constitution of 1988 provided the Brazilian Courts of Accounts with important competencies for the external control of public expenditures, including the function of judging the accounts of those who use, collect, store, and administer public resources, and the power to impose sanctions and order the return of amounts spent improperly. At the same time, the 1988 Brazilian Constitution, through its Article 5, guarantees to all individuals that the State can only deprive them of their assets and rights if it faithfully follows certain specific principles (“normas-princípio”) of due legal process, adversarial system and full defense. Disrespecting directly such principles, the TCU Organic Law (Law 8.443/92) structured the Federal Court of Accounts in such a way as to give to thejudges (”Ministers”) of the Court the role of auditing, accusing, instituting, instructing, administering the evidence and deciding on its accusatory proceedings against individuals. Moreover, the Law established a process in which the parties cannot: produce their evidence; analyse the evidence presented by their accusers/judges; be heard; or even appeal to a forum that has not already reviewed and decided on their case. Therefore, it is necessary to change Law 8.443/92 to enable the creation of a structure and process in the Federal Court of Accounts that is fair (as well as the laws of all other state and municipal Courts of Accounts), including among the responsibilities of the members of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Accounts auditing, accusing, and guaranteeing that the parties produce fully their evidence and counter-evidence, freeing the Ministers to fulfill the exclusive function of judging impartially, based on the procedural dialectic / A CRFB/88 entregou aos Tribunais de Contas brasileiros importantes competências para o controle externo dos gastos públicos, incluindo a função de julgar as contas daqueles que usarem, arrecadarem, guardarem e administrarem recursos públicos, podendo-lhes aplicar sanções e condenar à devolução de valores irregularmente dispendidos. Ao mesmo tempo, a CRFB/88 garantiu, por meio do artigo 5o, a todos os indivíduos que o Estado somente lhes possa privar de seus bens e direitos caso siga fielmente as normas-princípio do devido processo legal, do contraditório e da ampla defesa. Desrespeitando frontalmente tais princípios, a Lei Orgânica do TCU (Lei n. 8.443/92) organizou seu aparato de forma a incluir nas atribuições de seus Ministros o papel de fiscalizar, acusar, instaurar, instruir, gerir as provas e decidir seus processos acusatórios contra os indivíduos, além disso a referida Lei estabeleceu um processo em que as partes não conseguem: produzir suas provas; acompanhar as provas produzidas pelos seus acusadores e ao mesmo tempo julgadores; serem ouvidas; e nem recorrerem para instância que não já as tenha fiscalizado e julgado. Portanto é necessário mudar a Lei n. 8.443/92 para viabilizar tanto uma organização como um processo justo no Tribunal de Contas da União, assim como as leis de todas as demais Cortes de Contas estaduais e municipais, colocando nas competências dos membros do Ministério Público de Contas as fiscalizações e as acusações, garantindo às partes produzir amplamente suas provas e contraprovas, libertando os Ministros para cumprir a função exclusiva de julgar imparcialmente, a partir da dialética processual

Este trabajo de investigación busca demostrar la importancia de identificar el momento adecuado dar de baja las cuentas por pagar y reconocerlas como un ingreso en el periodo correspondiente. Actualmente en nuestro país no hay conocimiento contable práctico sobre cuándo se deben reconocer estas cuentas por pagar (antiguas) como un ingreso, los mecanismos por lo que estas cuentas por pagar dejarían de ser pasivos y pasarían a ser ingreso. Al ser las cuentas por pagar consideradas cuentas del Estado de Situación Financiera se piensa que no tiene efectos en los resultados del periodo, sin embargo, estas cuentas por pagar generan efectos en el Estado de Resultados, porque son reconocidas como un ingreso extraordinario. Como consecuencia de ello, la base para el cálculo del impuesto a la renta varía causando un incremento en la determinación y el pago del impuesto a la renta correspondiente. En vista de ello, es importante determinar en qué momento se deben dar de baja estas cuentas por pagar para no generar contingencias con la Administración Tributaria. En el primer capítulo de la presente tesis se ha desarrollado la revisión de la literatura de las variables dependientes e independientes. En el segundo capítulo se ha desarrollado el problema principal y los problemas específicos, el objetivo principal y los objetivos específicos y la hipótesis principal y las hipótesis específicas. En el tercer capítulo se ha desarrollado la metodología de la investigación. En el cuarto capítulo se ha desarrollado la investigación cuantitativa y cualitativa, así como también el caso práctico. En el quinto capítulo se tiene el análisis de los resultados y finalmente las conclusiones y recomendaciones. / This research work seeks to demonstrate the importance of identifying the appropriate time to write off accounts payable and recognize them as income in the corresponding period. Currently in our country there is no practical accounting knowledge on when these accounts payable (old) should be recognized as income, the mechanisms for which these accounts payable would cease to be passive and would become income. As accounts payable considered accounts of the Statement of Financial Position is thought to have no effect on the results of the period, however these accounts payable generate effects in the Income Statement, because they are recognized as extraordinary income. Consequently, the basis for calculating the income tax varies causing an increase in the determination and payment of the corresponding income tax. In view of this, it is important to determine at what moment these accounts payable must be written off in order not to generate contingencies with the Tax Administration. In the first chapter of this thesis the literature review of dependent and independent variables has been developed. In the second chapter, the main problem and the specific problems, the main objective and the specific objectives and the main hypothesis and the specific hypotheses have been developed. In the third chapter the methodology of the investigation has been developed. In the fourth chapter, quantitative and qualitative research has been developed, as well as the case study. In the fifth chapter we have the analysis of the results and finally the conclusions and recommendations. / Tesis

Submitted by Liliane Ferreira (ljuvencia30@gmail.com) on 2018-05-21T15:01:04Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Bruno Batista de Carvalho Luz - 2018.pdf: 3214058 bytes, checksum: 4b2526462dd64448b354d715e846fbfe (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-05-22T12:13:13Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Bruno Batista de Carvalho Luz - 2018.pdf: 3214058 bytes, checksum: 4b2526462dd64448b354d715e846fbfe (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-22T12:13:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - Bruno Batista de Carvalho Luz - 2018.pdf: 3214058 bytes, checksum: 4b2526462dd64448b354d715e846fbfe (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-05-04 / The objective of this research was to investigate cultural policies related to the debate on the reform of Brazilian Audit Courts (TCs). The study focused on analyzing how accounts of legitimacy and framing strategies conducted by different categories of legal and non-legal actors manifested themselves in the debate on the reform of Brazilian TCs in the period from 2000 to 2017. In this sense, the debate on reform was understood as a field of dialogue and discussion that, between 2000 and 2017, allowed the shaping of the legitimacy of TCs, law enforcement organizations responsible for controlling public resources. With regard to the development of the research, first, the mobilization process on the reform was described. Second, the central arguments used by different categories of actors were analyzed. Third, through legitimacy accounts of the reform, the emerging legitimacy factors and the frameworks of the mobilization process were identified. Documentary data were used, such as parliamentary speeches, public hearings, debates and news. Interviews were also conducted with representatives of the various categories of actors, including professional corporations, media, academia, judiciary, and organized civil society. The data were analyzed using the content analysis technique with the support of NVivo software. The results showed (i) the centrality of professional corporations acting both in the mediation and the translation of the debate, and in the design of intervention strategies in the legal field; (ii) the identification of legitimacy factors emerging from the debate that signal a multidimensionality of the legitimacy of TCs; and (iii) evidence of the framework of the mobilization process on TC reform in three ways — as a legal process associated with the construction of legal meaning, as a normative process associated with behavior change at the interorganizational level, and as a responsive process integration between political and legal groups. / O objetivo desta pesquisa foi investigar políticas culturais relacionadas ao debate em torno da reforma dos Tribunais de Contas Brasileiros (TCs). A pesquisa centrou-se em analisar como accounts de legitimidade e estratégias de enquadramento conduzidas por diferentes categorias de atores legais e não legais se manifestaram no debate acerca da reforma dos TCs brasileiros no período de 2000 a 2017. Nesse sentido, o debate sobre a reforma foi entendido como um campo de diálogo e discussão que, entre 2000 e 2017, permitiu a moldagem da legitimidade dos TCs, organizações de aplicação da lei responsáveis pelo controle de recursos públicos. No tocante ao desenvolvimento da pesquisa, em primeiro lugar, descreveu-se o processo de mobilização em torno da reforma. Em segundo lugar, analisou-se os argumentos centrais usados por diferentes categorias de atores. Em terceiro lugar, identificou-se, por meio dos accounts de legitimidade da reforma, os fatores de legitimidade emergentes e os enquadramentos do processo de mobilização. Foram utilizados dados documentais, como discursos parlamentares, audiências públicas, debates e notícias. Também foram utilizadas entrevistas com representantes das várias categorias de atores, incluindo corporações profissionais, mídia, academia, judiciário e sociedade civil organizada. Os dados foram analisados a partir da técnica de análise de conteúdo com o apoio do software NVivo. Os resultados mostraram (i) uma centralidade de atuação das corporações profissionais tanto na mediação e tradução do debate, como no desenho de estratégicas de intervenção no campo legal; (ii) a identificação de fatores de legitimidade emergentes do debate que sinalizam para uma multidimensionalidade da legitimidade organizacional dos TCs; e (iii) a evidenciação de enquadramento do processo de mobilização em torno da reforma dos TCs sob três formas: como um processo legal associado à construção do significado legal, como um processo normativo associado à mudança de comportamento no nível interorganizacional e como um processo responsivo associado à integração entre grupos das esferas política e jurídica.

Bien que le SCN 1993 ait été mis en place depuis plus de quinze ans, certains pays ne l'ont toujours pas mis en application, tandis que d'autres affirment l'appliquer sans qu'en réalité il ne le soit parfaitement.Les difficultés de la mise en œuvre du SCN 1993 s'expliquent par plusieurs raisons parmi lesquelles nous pouvons répertorier la disponibilité des sources de données et les bases de données.La Syrie n'a pas adapté le SCN 1993, et les comptes nationaux syriens sont aujourd'hui encore établis selon le SCN 1968.Dans notre recherche, nous avons analysé la qualité des données des comptes nationaux pour réaliser une application complète du SCN 1993 au département des comptes nationaux de Syrie.Ce système n'est certes pas en cours, mais l'application complète donnerait une réelle image de l'économie syrienne. Afin de réaliser cet objectif, et en profitant des expériences que nous offrent les autres pays, il était indispensable d'analyser la qualité des données de la comptabilité nationale produites au sein du département de la comptabilité nationale. Ce travail doit nous permettre de connaître la capacité de la Syrie à répondre aux recommandations du SCN 1993.Le SCN 2008 publié récemment, ne fait qu'approfondir le besoin d'adapter le système syrien au SCN. .Il est essentiel de garder à l'esprit que l'objectif n'est pas d'annoncer avec précipitation appliquer le système, mais il est urgent de produire et d'être capable de faire de vraies données et ainsi d'appliquer sainement le SCN.Cette recherche n'est pas un aboutissement mais se veut au contraire être le point de départ de d'une réflexion approfondie sur la refonte complète de la comptabilité nationale syrienne qui permettra de produire des données saines qui reflètent la réalité économique et permettent d'établir des stratégies économiques et de permettre le développement économique de la Syrie. / Although the SNA 1993 has been established for over fifteen years, some countries have still not yet implemented, while others pretend implementing it, without it being correctly applied.The difficulties in the implementation of the SNA 1993 are explained by a few main reasons among which we can identify the availability of data sources and databases.Syria has still not adopted the SNA 1993, and the Syrian national accounts are still set according to the 1968 SNA.In our research, we analyzed the quality of national accounts data to make a good applicability of the 1993 SNA of national accounts department of Syria.To achieve this goal, and taking advantage of the experiences that other countries offer us, it was necessary to analyze the quality of national accounts data produced in the department of the national accounts.The work should enable us to know our ability to respond to the recommendations of the system 93.The SNA 2008 has recently been published, however, we believe that when we are able to generate sound data, we will also be able to practice any developed system.It is essential to keep in mind that the goal is not to announce has only the implementation of the system. But it is urgent to produce and be able to do real data and to apply reasonably well the SNA.This research is not an end but will instead be the starting point of the national accounts, in order to produce sound data that reflect the reality of the economic in the future, for the establishment of economic strategies and economic development of Syria.

The aim of my diploma thesis is to describe indirect methods that are used in the compilation of quarterly national accounts. The diploma thesis is divided into three parts and three chapters. The first chapter presents the theoretical background and describes the development of national accounts in the Czech Republic and the basic macroeconomic aggregates. The second chapter is devoted to the quarterly national accounts and mathematical and statistical methods that are used in their compilation. The third chapter describes in detail selected indirect methods, which consists in linking the indicator and aggregate. Consequently, this method is applied to the data of the Czech Republic and then quarterly estimates are constructed which are compared to actual values.

Using a randomized experiment in rural Malawi, this paper finds that providing information on mobile bank buses’ services leads to a higher probability of adopting savings accounts in the treatment group. Households in the treated villages are 3.06 percentage points more likely to adopt savings accounts than households in the control group. Second, the information treatment leads to an increase of in the probability of households receiving remittances in the treated villages, as well as an increase in the amount of remittances received. In particular, the effect is strongest for households that lived at least three kilometers away from the trade centers, which suggests that the main cost of transferring remittance is the cost of traveling to a bank. Third, the 2SLS regression provides suggestive evidence that adopting savings accounts leads to an increase in households’ remittance activities. The 63.3 percentage points increase in the possibility of households receiving remittances after adopting savings accounts suggests that there previously exist high costs associated with the informal channels of transferring remittances.

Using the theoretical approach of discursive psychology, this thesis examines the interactive uses of mental state talk, in particular the term want , in everyday family interaction. In mainstream cognitive psychology mental state terms are examined as words which signify internal referents. How individuals come to competently participate in social interaction is formulated as a problem of how individual, isolated minds come to understand the contents of other minds. This thesis challenges these individualistic notions and examines notions of wanting as interactionally managed participants concerns. The data are taken from two sources; a set of video recordings taken from a series of fly-on-the-wall documentary programmes which each focus on a particular family and videotapes of mealtimes recorded by three families. Recordings were initially transcribed verbatim and sections related to the emerging themes within the thesis were subsequently transcribed using the Jefferson notation system. These transcripts were then analysed, alongside repeated viewings of the video recordings. The thesis considers a range of analytic themes, which are interlinked via one of the primary research questions, which has been to examine how, and to what end, speakers routinely deploy notions of wanting in everyday talk-in-interaction. A major theme has been to highlight inherent problems with work in social cognition which uses experimental tasks to examine children s Theory of Mind and understanding of desires . I argue that the assumptions of this work are a gross simplification of the meaning wanting for both children and adults. A further theme has been to examine the sequential organisation of directives and requests in both adults and children s talk. Finally, I examine speakers practices for rejecting a proposal regarding their actions and for denying a formulation of their motivations by a co-interactant. The conclusions of the thesis show that expressions of wanting are practical expressions which work within a flow of interactional and deontic considerations and that making claims regarding one s own or others wants is entirely a social matter. I argue that rather than being examined for what they may reveal about the mind , mental state terms may be fruitfully examined as interactional matters.

The experiences of family caregivers of adults diagnosed with Non-Epileptic Attack Disorder (NEAD) are under-researched. To address this lack of research and the Department of Health’s (DOH) aim to focus on the experiences of caregivers to inform the development of appropriate services (DOH, 2010), this narrative inquiry focuses on the stories told by eight caregivers of adults diagnosed with NEAD. Each narrative, which was collected through loosely structured interviews, was analysed from both a content and performative perspective. Multiple readings of the narratives revealed that caregivers told two different story ‘types’ about their experiences: stories of ‘biographical continuity’ and stories of ‘biographical disruption’. These findings are discussed in relation to the relevant literature and clinical implications. Methodological limitations and directions for future research are also presented. The study provides a valuable insight for any professional working with caregivers of individuals with NEAD and it is hoped that this research will promote dialogue amongst professionals and readers.

This PhD thesis argues that accounts are influenced by culture, are a fundamental form of social practice by which interaction is accomplished, and thus a central sociological concept. The focus of the thesis is that accounts of time and money are affected by religious belief. It examines and (re)conceptualises the concept of an account. Accounts are re-theorised as taking two forms: rational and rhetorical, with their mediation emphasised as the feature that makes them empirically different. Studies of accounting in religious institutions are critically examined and complemented using research from a neglected (in 'financial' accounting studies) branch of sociological research about accounts as ubiquitous social practices. Time and money are appropriate phenomena to research sociologically because they are relevant to sociological and financial conceptions of an account as numerically accountable phenomena that also have socially meaningful features. Ethnomethodology and institutional ethnography are deployed as two mutual methodological frameworks for researching the social accomplishment of accounts in small-scale interaction and ways in which a complex of wider ruling relations, through institutional discourses, are implicit in accounting interactions, especially in institutional settings. The thesis forwards a set of theoretically derived propositions to provide an explanation of accounts that explores their social embeddedness more closely than previous work. Briefly, these are that accounts generally, and particularly as applied to time and money, are a key means to make actions visible; are an attempt to promote a morally worthy self; are culturally relative; give information about the social norms of the social collective; always occur at moral and sometimes institutional interfaces; and are ubiquitous social practices. To provide and interrogate an applied example of these theoretically and methodologically derived propositions about accounts of time and money and how these are affected by culture and beliefs, I use observation, participant observation, analysis of community produced literature, and semi-structured interviews in a critical case study of the Findhorn Foundation. Therein time and money are rhetorically accountable; are indicative of the spiritually influenced moral code of the Findhorn Foundation; and the moral code provides for a vocabulary of motives that members use in order present morally worthy selves. The ideal moral self is culturally relative to the Findhorn Foundation and sets itself in opposition to an ideal type of capitalist production, consumption and generally dominant ways of knowing, being, and organising in industrialised western societies. Rhetorical accounts of time and money pervade rational ones at the organisational level and spiritual principles are blended with business acumen. However, although spiritual principles have epistemological and ontological differences (from dominant ways of doing business in the wider society), they need to be commensurable with the extra-locally produced discourses found within the wider society in order to remain legally viable. Furthermore, tensions around inefficient decision-making processes exist. Accounts are tied to multiple (at times competing) moral codes within Findhorn, and also operate within pragmatically set limits involving disposable resources. This thesis is argued to be a valuable contribution to sociological literature around social accounting in general, and in religious institutions in particular, and contributes to the literature concerning social actors' accounts of their social actions, regardless of the specific setting. That is, these findings are 'about social practices' in general. Succinctly, my thesis puts forward a strong case for seeing accounts as a central sociological concept.