The ‘ideology’ of professional regulation can be viewed not simply as a mask for the profession’ s activities but is implicated in the conditions that make accountancy possible. The discourses that surround professions and are promoted by professionals are understood to form an integral part of the social practices that facilitate, maintain and promote the occupation. Accounting practitioners draw upon the professional discourse of regulation to project their practices as embodying the attributes of proper professional practice, and in so doing reproduce and legitimate their actions. Among the many ways in which ideology operates, we.
