Professor Stewart Smyth
Back
Biography
Stewart Smyth joined Cork University Business School in July 2023. Stewart's research interests cover the policy and financing of public services, focusing on public/social housing and the use of PPPs to deliver public infrastructure; the use of accounting information by trade unions and social movements; and related conceptions of public accountability. Stewart has been teaching accounting and related subjects since the late 1990s, with a particular emphasis on financial reporting and auditing, in both the private and public sectors. In recent years, he has developed and delivered Research Methods and Philosophical Perspectives to Accounting and Financial Management students. The nature of Stewart's research leads him to pursue a range of public and policy engagements, including speaking at housing policy conferences and writing for different media outlets on accounting and finance issues.
Grants and Honours
- 2018-2020 – “Beyond 1968 – the Memphis Sanitation Workers strike and accountability from below”, British Academy (BA)/Leverhulme
Other Activities
- 2023 – PhD External Examiner, Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick
- 2023 – Keynote address, annual conference Management Accounting Research Group (MARG), Aston University, England
- 2022 to 2024 – President, British Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA)
- 2020 to 2022 – Vice President, BAFA
- 2021 to Date - Expert advisory group member on Housing Executive Reform, Northern Ireland
- 2021 – Speaker at Policy Forum for Northern Ireland policy conference: Housing in Northern Ireland
- 2019 – Keynote address, 'Homelessness & Housing’ conference in Belfast, sponsored and funded by the Irish Government’s Foreign Affairs and Trade Department
- 2019 – International Guest lecture, ‘CSR and Employee Rights’ workshop organised by SIDREA, University of Naples
- 2019 – Guest speaker NIPSA annual conference
- 2017 to 2020 – External examiner, Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick
- 2013 to 2019 – Chair, Interdisciplinary Perspectives SIG, BAFA
Research Domains
- Accounting and Labour studies
- Social Housing Finance, Governance and Accountability
- Public Private Partnerships
- Public Accountability
Thesis
- 2021 - Post-decision Project Evaluation in PPP projects – a sociology of ignorance approach (Thesis Co-Supervisor)
- 2020 - Sustainability thinking in the UK’s undergraduate accounting education process: Examination through a lens of pedagogical theories (Thesis Co-Supervisor)
- 2019 - Grounding the concept and practice of accountability: A case study with Ngāi Tahu (Thesis Co-Supervisor)
Publications
Journal article
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2023 |
Shu, X., Smyth, S. and Haslam, J., Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal'Understanding absences and ambiguities of Post-decision Project Evaluation in the UK's PPPs: drawing from the sociology of ignorance' (2023/Forthcoming) |
| 2023 |
Scobie, M.; Lee, B. and Smyth, S.. Critical Perspectives on Accounting. Vol. 92, 102198Grounded accountability towards Indigenous self-determination’ (2023) ‘ |
| 2022 |
Sian, S. and Smyth, S., Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 35(1)'Supreme emergencies and public accountability: the case of procurement in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic' (2022) |
| 2022 |
Smyth, S., Uddin, S. and Lee, B., Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 86, p.102481'Subject, method and praxis – Conducting critical studies in accounting research' (2022) |
| 2021 |
Alawattage, C. et al. (2021) ‘Opening accounting: A Manifesto’, Accounting Forum, 45(3), pp. 227-246 |
| 2021 |
Scobie, M., Lee, B. and Smyth, S. , Organization, 28(5), pp. 857-87'Braiding together student and supervisor aspirations in a struggle to decolonize'(2021) |
| 2021 |
Shu, X., Smyth, S. and Haslam, J. (, Public Money & Management, 41(6), pp. 447–486'Post-decision project evaluation of UK public–private partnerships'2021) |
| 2020 |
Smyth, S., Cole, I. and Fields, D. (2020) 'From gatekeepers to gateway constructors: Credit rating agencies and the financialisation of housing associations', Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 71, p.102093 |
| 2019 |
Whitfield, D. and Smyth, S. (2019) 'Infrastructure Investment – The Emergent PPP Equity Market', Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 90(2), pp. 291–309 |
| 2019 |
Smyth, S. (2019) 'Embedding financialization: a policy review of the English Affordable Homes Programme', Housing Studies, 34(1), pp. 142–161 |
| 2017 |
Smyth, S., Public Management Review, 19(2), pp. 212–231'Public Accountability: reforms and resistance in social housing' (2017) |
| 2017 |
Smyth, S. and Whitfield, D. Accounting Forum, 41(1), pp. 44-56‘Maintaining market principles: Government auditors, PPP equity sales and hegemony’, (2017) |
| 2017 |
Smyth, S., Public Money & Management, 37(6), pp. 432–433'Interventions and contradictions— recent government social housing policy' (2017) |
Book chapter
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2022 |
Stafford, A.; Smyth, S. and Almeida, M. (2022), “Financialisation”, in edited by Graeme Hodge and Carsten Greve, Research Agenda for Public-Private Partnerships and the Governance of Infrastructure: New frontiers and themes in a contested world, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham. |
Special ISSUE Editorship
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2022 |
Critical Perspectives on Accounting; ‘Conducting Studies in Critical Accounting Research’, editors Stewart Smyth, Bill Lee and Shahzad Uddin; published July 2022 |
Research Reports
| Year | Publication |
|---|---|
| 2022 |
‘The Spectre of Privatisation - The future of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive’, Northern Ireland Public Services Alliance (NIPSA) Briefing Note, May 2022. |
| 2020 |
‘21st Century Housing for Northern Ireland’, Northern Ireland Public Services Alliance (NIPSA) research report, February 2020. |
| 2017 |
‘Our Homes, Our Future: Protecting Public Housing’, Northern Ireland Public Services Alliance (NIPSA) research report, June 2017. |
