Linking narrative and identity construction: using autobiography in accounting research

This paper is concerned with the derivation of methodological principles, using autobiographical narrative, to research the lived experience of accountants, drawn from my experiences of accounting, academia and motherhood. In the accounting context, relatively few studies have employed interpretative, biographical or autobiographical methodologies in a study of the accounting profession, or examined the subjective experience and identity of accountants. The paper draws on sociological and feminist theoretical perspectives to argue for the use of autobiography as a methodological principle, which links epistemology and ontology with methodology. It presents and analyses three extracts from the author's own autobiography, concluding that narrative forms an important part of identity construction, within the cultural, social and political practices of which it is a part, and which it is also capable of perpetuating.