This paper analyses what is seen as a crisis of authority in financial reporting. It considers the view that an element of authority may be restored to accounting through communicative reason. The paper argues that the justice‐oriented rationality of traditional, Habermasian, communicative...

Purpose – To introduce the three papers in the special section, an overflow from a recent special issue of the journal. Design/methodology/approach – Provides a brief review of the papers. Findings – The three papers focus on a common concern: the sacred secular dichotomy that has been...