RELATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY IN CIVIC MOVEMENTS: EVIDENCE FROM THE PAREPARE CITY CARE MOVEMENT
Downloads
Abstract
This study examines the deconstruction of accountability in the Parepare City Community Care Movement, an educational volunteer community operating in remote areas of South Sulawesi. The study is motivated by the limitations of formal accountability models in explaining accountability practices in grassroots volunteer movements that work through relationships of trust, presence, care, and impact stories rather than formal reporting structures. A qualitative case study approach was employed with semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with thirteen informants consisting of founders, administrators, active volunteers, and community leaders. Thematic analysis with a deconstructive orientation was used to read tensions, oppositions, and traces of meaning in informant narratives. The results reveal that accountability in the Parepare City Community Care Movement is practiced through simple reports as traces of trust, narrative-visual accountability through photos, videos, and impact stories that disrupt the dominance of numbers, beneficiary-centered accountability where children and remote communities become the ethical center of responsibility, and remote children as moral auditors whose expectations create ethical pressure shaping volunteer behavior. The study demonstrates that accountability in volunteer movements is not the absence of formalities but minimal formalities linked to strong social relations, where the center of accountability shifts from reports to relationships. The findings contribute to non-profit accountability literature by offering the concept of community-based relational accountability, showing that accountability is not only the obligation to provide accounts but also the willingness to answer the calls of other parties as a promise, presence, and sustainability of relationships.
Keywords:
Accountability Deconstruction Relational Accountability Volunteer Movement Non-Profit Accountability Community MovementReferences
Ang, S. Y., & Wickramasinghe, D. (2023). Ethical Disputes, Coordinating Acts and NGO Accountability: Evidence From an NGO River-Care Programme in Malaysia. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 92. doi:http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2022.102416
Arrington, C. E., & Francis, J. R. (1989). Letting the Chat Out of The Bag: Deconstruction, Previlege, and Accounting Research. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 14(1–2), 1–28. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(89)90030-5
Awio, G., Northcott, D., & Lawrence, S. (2011). Social Capital and Accountability in Grass-Roots NGOs: The Case of the Ugandan Community-led HIV/AIDS Initiative. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 24(1), 63–92. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513571111098063
Bovens, M. (2007). Analysing and Assessing Accountability: A Conceptual Framework 1. European Law Journal, 13(4), 447–468. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0386.2007.00378.x
Brown, J. (2009). Democracy, Sustainability and Dialogic Accounting Technologies: Taking Pluralism Seriously. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 20(3), 313–342. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2008.08.002
Cordery, C. J., Goncharenko, G., Polzer, T., McConville, D., & Belal, A. (2023). NGOs’ Performance, Governance, and Accountability in the Era of Digital Transformation. British Accounting Review, 55(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2023.101239
Croix, T. de S. (2020). Re-imagining Accountability: Storytelling Workshops for Evaluation in and Beyond Youth Work. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 30(5), 697–714. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2020.1855231
Dewi, M. K., Manochin, M., & Belal, A. (2021). Towards a Conceptual Framework of Beneficiary Accountability by NGOs: An Indonesian Case Study. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2019.102130
Dillard, J., & Vinnari, E. (2019). Critical Dialogical Accountability: From Accounting-Based Accountability to Accountability-Based Accounting. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 62, 16–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2018.10.003
Ebrahim, A. (2003). Accountability in Practice: Mechanisms for NGOs. World Development, 31(5), 813–829. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0305-750X(03)00014-7
Girei, E. (2023). Managerialisation, Accountability and Everyday Resistance in the NGO Sector: Whose Interests Matter? Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2022.102418
Kaba, M. (2021). NGO Accountability: A Conceptual Review Across the Engaged Disciplines. International Studies Review, 23(3), 958–996. https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viaa094
Kingston, K. L., Furneaux, C., de Zwaan, L., & Alderman, L. (2020). From Monologic to Dialogic: Accountability of Nonprofit Organisations on Beneficiaries’ Terms. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 33(2), 447–471. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-01-2019-3847
Kingston, K. L., Luke, B., & Vinnari, E. (2025). Understanding Beneficiary Evaluative Capacity within Nonprofit Organisations through an Immanent Perspective. Accounting, Auditing, & Accountability Journal, 38(2), 643-673. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-02-2024-6906
McKernan, J. F. (2011). Deconstruction and the Responsibilities of the Accounting Academic. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 22(7), 698–713. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2011.01.012
Messner, M. (2009). The Limits of Accountability. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 34(8), 918–938. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2009.07.003
Miles, M. B., Huberman, A. M., & Saldana, J. (2014). Qualitative Data Analysis A Methods Sourcebook (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Noble, E., Moinul, D., Sylla, O. K. D., Friedmann, S., Amick, K., Rowhani, N., Dua, R., Mannan, N., Seaman, C., Ayo, O., Pant, S., Osoko, O., Gogineni, S., Malburg, C., Dickey, C., & Peprah, E. (2025). Downward Accountability Mechanism Effectiveness by Non-Governmental Organizations in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Qualitative Systematic Review. PLoS ONE, 20(5 May). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0324098
O’Dwyer, B. (2005). Stakeholder Democracy: Challenges and Contributions from Social Accounting. Business Ethics: A European Review, 14(1).
Pianezzi, D. (2021). We are What We Tell: An Enquiry into NGOs' Organizational Identity and Accountability. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 34(8), 1824-1850. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-06-2020-4647
Roberts, J. (1991). The Possibilities of Accountability. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 16(4), 355–368. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(91)90027-C
Roberts, J., & Scapens, R. (1985). Accounting Systems and Systems of Accountability-Understanding Accounting Practices in Their Organisational Contexts. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 10(4), 44–47. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(85)90005-4
Saxton, G. D., & Guo, C. (2011). Accountability Online: Understanding the Web-Based Accountability Practices of Nonprofit Organizations. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40(2), 270–295. https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764009341086
Schnable, A., Appe, S., & Buyannemekh, B. (2025). Opportunities for Downward Accountability? Survey Evidence From Small Transnational NGOs. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 35(4), 799–811. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.21645
Sinclair, A. (1995). The Chameleon of Accountability: Forms and Discourses. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 20(2–3), 219–237. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(93)E0003-Y
Unerman, J., & O’Dwyer, B. (2006). Theorising Accountability for NGO Advocacy. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, 19(3), 349–376. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513570610670334
Yates, D., & Difrancesco, R. M. (2022). The View from the Front Line: Shifting Beneficiary Accountability and Interrelatedness in the Time of A Global Pandemic. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 35(1), 85-96. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-08-2020-4811
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Nur'illiyyien, Alimuddin, Syarifuddin
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
