Accounting as capital and field of struggle: Symbolic power and labour relations in municipal government
研究会计如何在市政府中同时作为资本形式和斗争场域运作，通过阿根廷科尔多瓦的冲突案例，分析就业数据披露如何改变政府与工会的权力平衡，对关注公共部门会计与权力关系的学者有参考价值。
This paper examines how accounting operates simultaneously as a form of capital and as a field of struggle within municipal government. Focusing on a conflict in Córdoba, Argentina, it analyses how the introduction of transparency and administrative control through the disclosure of employment data reconfigured the balance of power between government and public sector unions. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital, and doxa, the study shows how accounting practices shape the boundaries of legitimacy, authority, and accountability within politicized bureaucratic contexts. The Accounting-Based Information System (ABIS) became both a technical and symbolic resource through which actors sought to maintain or transform their position within the municipal field. By situating these dynamics in the global south, the study extends critical accounting research by demonstrating how accounting initiatives are embedded in historically constituted relations of power and belief, and how they contribute to ongoing struggles over the meaning and legitimacy of public service and governance.