Accounting and Science: Natural Inquiry and Commercial Reason

In recent years policy makers and scientists have become increasingly interested in the economics of science, and in particular in the relationship between accounting and science. This book, originally published as a special issue of the journal Science in Context , provides a truly interdisciplinary approach to this subject. The contributors explore, in a number of different ways, the constitutive role that practices of economic calculation play in the conduct of science and the forms of economic life within which science is embedded. Challenging conventional views, they suggest that if scientific and accounting practices are to be properly understood, they must be studied in relation to a complex background of specialist communities, funding institutions and demands for public accountability. This book will be invaluable for scholars and policy makers working in the field.