There is an emerging strand of accounting research that seeks to utilise critical realist ideas (Modell, 2014). To date these researchers have come to critical realism (CR) on an individual and isolated basis. Further, there is a wider recognition in the accounting research community of the role that critical realist ideas have had in informing interdisciplinary research in other fields.

This research project will hold a series of workshops that seeks to bring this embryonic research community together for the first time. Further, it is anticipated that the workshops will attract other accounting researchers who may not have published work using CR but are attracted to its ideas.

Each workshop will have a keynote address delivered by a leading academic who writes using CR ideas in other disciplines (e.g. sociology, politics and organisation and management studies), where CR is an already established research perspective. This will be followed by sessions where individual papers will be presented and discussed using a discussant model with, the aim of developing the papers to publishable standard.

The output of these workshops will be a collection of papers that are ready for publication either as an edited book of essays or a special issue of leading accounting or management journal. In this respect, discussions have already taken place with Routledge about publishing such a book (please contact Jacqueline Courthoys).