This doctoral seminar provides an overview of sustainability accounting research, exploring both historical research traditions and contemporary state-of-the-art research in the the field. The seminar seeks to cover the broad spectrum of research in this evolving field, addressing a range of different topics, approaches, methodologies and theoretical frameworks. We emphasise inclusivity and the importance of working across paradigms, and hence the doctoral seminar will include discussions taking place in both the mainstream accounting literature as well as the leading interdisciplinary accounting journals.

Underpinning the seminar are questions regarding the roles sustainability accounting plays in societies, and how sustainability accounting can be made to serve the common good. We are interested in exploring how varieties of sustainability accounting manifest in different types of contexts and settings, and what types of questions emerge through such manifestations. Further, the seminar seeks to position the current knowledge of sustainability accounting in the long tradition of research in the field, and discuss the relevance of different questions in the context of contemporary global sustainability challenges.

The seminar will be led by international faculty with significant long-standing experience of sustainability accounting research spanning several decades. As established scholars in the field, the faculty members are able to share insights of their own research projects to supplement examples drawn from the literature, and thereby provide further perspective for the students. The discussions, guided by the above themes alongside other questions emerging through interaction at the seminar, aim at enhancing the doctoral students’ knowledge and awareness of the broad field of sustainability accounting and subsequently assist them in making choices in their own research projects.