From quasars to bus stops and numbers – how a time-network is used and organised within accounting practice

This paper starts out with a study of accounting practices in a Public Transport Organisation. A performative perspective has generated some interesting findings and leads on to some points that can be made. <p> I have followed how activities in the organization have been translated and distributed with the help of actors and technologies. I can show that accounting practices are intertwined with the construction of time and place. The construction of time seems to be quite central, more so than a first glance reveals. It is a process that not only has importance for this organization, but also for many other parts of the world where human beings conduct activities. <p> Accounting practices are intertwined with the construction of time. Time construction is an essential process that creates its own network, which not only supports accounting practice but also re-creates itself. Accounting practice, in turn, rides on the time construction network, gliding into every part of our lives. Mostly, this takes place with little or no reflection. <p> This paper shows how non-innocent this taken-for-granted time construction is. In order to make it visible, it is necessary to go outside the organisation – and to take a plunge into the network, as it were.