A Virtual Profession in the American Empire

The Philippines instituted an accounting law in 1923. I see this as the first step in the Philippine professionalisation project. The case of the Philippines enables us to reconsider our theoretical understanding of the professionalisation of accounting. Specifically, this book investigates the 'emergence' of a virtual accounting profession. It is virtual because (a) the Filipino project did not emerge from any pathway heretofore identified in the literature and, (b) because when the 1923 accounting law was passed there was no institutionalised or strongly recognised accounting profession in place at all. Secondly, this book adds to our understanding of professionalisation projects in the context of colonial relations, as these are played out in non-settler colonies. In investigating the Philippine professionalisation project, we are able to challenge an existing representation of a non-settler colony as a weak periphery dominated by an imperial state and professionalisation projects as 'mere', and by implication, inferior reproductions of the imperial country's model.