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Accountability in action?: the case of a database purchasing decision 1
Author(s) -
Neyland Daniel,
Woolgar Steve
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
the british journal of sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.826
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1468-4446
pISSN - 0007-1315
DOI - 10.1080/00071310220133331
Subject(s) - accountability , purchasing , audit , software deployment , action (physics) , value (mathematics) , order (exchange) , business , public relations , accounting , knowledge management , sociology , political science , computer science , marketing , finance , law , physics , quantum mechanics , machine learning , operating system
ABSTRACT The increasing prevalence of audit in university settings has raised concerns about the potentially adverse effects of invasive measures of performance upon the conduct of research and generation of knowledge. What sustains the current commitment to audit? It is argued that in order to address this question we need to understand how and to what extent notions of accountability are played out in practice. This is illustrated through the analysis of materials from an ethnographic study of ‘good management practice’ in the deployment of technologies in university settings. The paper examines the ways in which ideas of accountability — involving considerations such as ‘value for money’— inform the practical processes of deciding about the purchase of a new database technology.