As in the past or beyond it? Accounting-organizational perspectives of sanitary emergencies

Abstract

The current global crisis does not seem to have precedents, despite history teaching us that numerous sanitary emergencies had a dev­astating impact and were at the time of unprecedented and unequaled interest. The interest in this case is on the one hand to the capability of making a clear referring picture on the rupture points in social practices, such as the managerial ones. On the other hand, the investigation would show a paradigm of interdepend­ences between accounting and organizational models through a longitudinal historical view (Plague 1656, Cholera 1836, Yellow fever 1800, Covid-19). Given the severity of the pandemic that globally populations are suffering as the result of Covid-19, the authors offer a study on how previous sanitary emergencies have been treated. This would allow the authors to make a more appropriate analysis of the pandemic in which populations are immersed. The condition of urgency and state of necessity, in which the entire global community finds itself, make the structuring of analytical-interpretative research works necessary, that consider the observation of reality through the help of synchronic and diachronic approaches.

The authors longitudinally provide a frame in which the contents of accounting for epidemics appear unmodified from the cholera of 1836-37 and yellow fever 1800 until the recent sanitary emergency (Covid-19), demonstrating a strong and pervasive influence during Covid-19 of the other periods analyzed.  Similarities would be demonstrable, according to social and organizational repercussions, between the plague of 1656 and the recent Covid-19. In this sense, accounting processes involve not only the managerial perspective of its technicality and the need of knowledge on the epidemic data, but also involve the socio-organizational and psychological individual sphere, influenced by the data made available. The documental analysis would be considered one of the main values of the research work. It would enrich the scenario, in consideration also of the longitudinal comparison of the cases analyzed and the opportunity to match past events under the lens of the recent Covid-19 epidemic from different perspectives. According to the rupture points and similarities that distinguish accounting practices and socio-organizational repercussions during the events considered, the research would contribute with original and topical hermeneutic views.