Discourse on the operationalisation of and accounting for development in a Fijian context

Abstract

The differentiation of social practices between societies, be it accounting or any other social science discipline, constitutes the foundation and premise upon which this thesis is constructed. With this as the initial motivating factor, and through an analysis and assessment of the Fiji Development Bank (FDB) as a development institution (the only institution committed to development in Fiji by its official charter), the study aspires to give prominence to the need to locate contextually, the workings of institutions such as these. A reflection upon the operationalisation of development in Fiji through the FDB will illuminate the comprehension of this concept, both in Fiji and globally. From this perspective then the omni-present nature of both development and accounting practices will be examined for contextual differences. A contextual analysis which is incorporative of a society’s social, political, economic, and historical circumstances is necessary to understand in depth, its practices and institutions as opposed to some generalised universal application. Such a contextual sensitivity is integral to a critical analysis today and is central to this study.

Integral to, and in conformity with the concern to differentiate, is the need to problematise the exclusionary nature of accounting practices which are universally applied for the measurement of concepts such as development.