Theoretical constructions of and by the real

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Abstract

In accounting, there are few accounts of theorising as a lived, social process. Governed by the restrictive tenets of hypothetico-deductivism, the manufacture of theory has been objectified into an activity which is divorced from the life-world of the researcher and the researched. This paper gives a reconstruction of theorising on a four year research project and argues that (a) Theory is grounded in prior assumptions about the constitution of the Real; (b) Theory constructs and is constructed by the Real; and (c) Theory choice is an inevitable part of the act of research.

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