audit society

audit society

(M. Power, The Audit Explosion, 1994, The Audit Society, 1997) a society ‘which has come to understand the solution to many of its problems in terms of AUDIT’. (Power, 1997:5). Power's contention is that audits ‘do not passively monitor… performance ‘but shape the form of the performance in crucial ways (Power, 1994:8). Partly because they become formulaic and ‘ritualistic’ they may have side-effects and pathologies that frustrate the original intention to produce transparency and improvement of performance. The origins of an increase in audit are bound up with the phenomenon of RISK SOCIETY, with the new economic and ecological uncertainties – ‘new environments of trust and risk’ -associated with REFLEXIVE MODERNIZATION and GLOBALIZATION.