Accounting, accountability, and animal flourishing

The concept of flourishing has received little attention in accounting research to date, where it has primarily been considered in terms of organisational flourishing, or profitability, and to a lesser extent, in relation to humans (see [Bebbington, J. (2021), “The foundations of environmental accounting”, Bebbington, J., Larrinaga, C., O’Dwyer, B., & Thomson, I. (Eds), Routledge Handbook of Environmental Accounting, Routledge]). A recent accounting definition positions accounting as enabling the flourishing of organisations, people, and nature [Carnegie, G., L. Parker, and E. Tsahuridu. 2021. It’s 2020: What is Accounting Today? Australian Accounting Review 31, no. 1: 65–73]. Here, flourishing of nature refers not only to species and ecosystems, but also extends to the flourishing of individual animals [Powell, L. (2026), “The role of accounting in enabling the flourishing of nature: opportunities and challenges”, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 39 No. 3–4]. The Capabilities Approach to flourishing relates to opportunities for one to exercise their innate capabilities, or substantive freedoms, that are central to a flourishing life [Nussbaum, M.C. 2018. Working with and for Animals: Getting the Theoretical Framework Right. Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 19, no. 1: 2–18. Nussbaum, M. C. (2023), Justice for animals: Our collective responsibility, Simon & Schuster, New York.]. Originally developed in relation to human flourishing, the Capabilities Approach has since been extended to encompass flourishing of sentient nonhuman animals. This Special Issue explores the concept of animal flourishing in the context of accounting and accountability. The Special Issue examines if/how accounting practices could shape conditions for animal flourishing, how such flourishing could be accounted for, and organisational accountability for animal flourishing. We propose a range of suggestions for further research in this area that have the potential to offer important contributions in making animals visible within accounting [Vinnari, E., and M. Vinnari. 2022. Making the invisibles visible: Including animals in sustainability (and) accounting. Critical Perspectives on Accounting 82: 102324].