This study compares the systems of accounts of death operating in London and Naples during the cholera epidemic of 1854. It adopts a translation in space and time of the Bourdieusian concepts of field, capital and habitus and analyses secondary sources as well as primary sources, mainly in the form of medical reports, bulletins, records and healthcare registers retained in the State Archive of Naples and the National Archives in London. The main finding is that the significance of providing an account of death is a function of the distributions and intensity of the symbolic power in the field of forces where it occurs. Moreover, rendering accounts of death reinforces the initial state of equilibrium or disequilibrium within the field. The article contributes to the emerging streams of research into necroaccountability and into natural disasters in the form of epidemics.
1. [NA (The National Archives, London), UK]:
a) (GBH) The General Board of Health: Letter of the President of The General Board of Health to the Right Honourable the Viscount Palmerston, Secretary of the State for the Home Department of Epidemic Cholera in the Metropolis in 1855.
b) Report of the Committee for Scientific Inquiries in Relation to the Cholera Epidemic of 1854.
c) (MC) Medical Council: Treatment Committee of the Medical Council (1855). Report on the results of the different methods of treatment pursued in epidemic cholera (Metropolitan Report and Report on the Provinces throughout England and Scotland). Report to the General Board of Health. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
d) Poor Law Board: Annual report of the Poor Law Board. Volume 7, 1854.
e) The Cholera Inquiry Committee: Report on the cholera outbreak in the Parish of St. James, Westminster, during the autumn of 1854 / presented to the vestry by the Cholera Inquiry Committee, July 1855.
3.
2. [ASN (State Archive of Naples), Italy]:
a) King Ferdinand II: Regolamenti sanitarii per lo regno delle Due Sicilie sanzionati da Sua Maestà in conseguenza della legge de' 20 ottobre 1819, Nella Stamperia Cataneo, e de Bonis, nel Reale Albergo de' Poveri. 1820.
b) (AB) Bourbon Archive: Real Segreteria di Stato, year 1854: folder 932, page 139; folder 933, page 120; folder 41, page 120.
c) (MI) Ministry of the Interior, year 1854: Headquarter, Inventory III, bundle 907.
d) (SMH) Supreme Magistracy of Health and General Superintendence, year 1854: bundle 233.
4.
Secondary sources
5.
AhmadSConnollyCDemiragI (2021) Testing times: Governing a pandemic with numbers. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal34(6): 1362–1375.
6.
AhnPDWickramasingheD (2021) Pushing the limits of accountability: Big data analytics containing and controlling COVID-19 in South Korea. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal34(6): 1320–1331.
7.
AhrensTFerryL (2021) Accounting and accountability practices in times of crisis: A Foucauldian perspective on the UK government’s response to COVID-19 for England. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal34(4): 1332–1344.
8.
Anessi-PessinaEBarberaCLangellaCManes-RossiFSancinoASiciliaMSteccoliniI (2020) Reconsidering public budgeting after the COVID-19 outbreak: Key lessons and future challenges. Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management32(5): 957–965.
9.
Baños Sánchez-MatamorosJLópez-ManjónJDCarrasco-FenechFFunnellW (2013) Symbolic capital, accounting and caciques in local political life: The charity of Mr Rafael Tenorio (1909–20). Accounting History18(4): 491–506.
10.
BourdieuP (1986) The forms of capital. In: RichardsonJG (ed) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 241–258.
11.
BourdieuP (1991) Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Polity.
12.
BourdieuP (1993) Sociology in Question. London: SAGE.
13.
BourdieuP (1994) In Other Words: Essays Towards a Reflexive Sociology. Cambridge: Polity.
14.
BourdieuP (1998) Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
BourdieuP (2004) Science of Science and Reflexivity. Cambridge: Polity.
17.
BourdieuP (2005) The Social Structures of the Economy. Cambridge: Polity.
18.
BourdieuP (2018) On the state: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1989–1992. Cambridge: Polity.
19.
BourdieuPWacquantL (1992) An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
20.
BriggsA (1961) Cholera and society in the nineteenth century. Past and Present19(1): 76–96.
21.
CaddeoJ (2020) Santé publique et parlements au XVIIIe siècle; la limite du champ d’action de la police sanitaire. Analyse de l’arrêt du Conseil d’état du Roidu 14 septembre 1720 ausujet de la maladie contagieuse de la Ville de Marseille. Revista Estudios Jurídicos20(1): 75–89.
22.
CardinaleCL (1995) Alia. In: NicotraF (ed) Dizionario illustrato dei Comuni Siciliani. Palermo: Comune di Alia.
23.
CarnegieGDNapierCJ (2002) Exploring comparative international accounting history. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal15(5): 689–718.
24.
CollyerF (2018) Envisaging the healthcare sector as a field: Moving from Talcott Parsons to Pierre Bourdieu. Social Theory & Health16(1): 111–126.
25.
CollyerFMWillisKFFranklinMHarleyKShortSD (2015) Healthcare choice: Bourdieu’s capital, habitus and field. Current Sociology63(5): 685–699.
26.
CollyerFMWillisKFLewisS (2017) Gatekeepers in the healthcare sector: Knowledge and Bourdieu’s concept of field. Social Science & Medicine186(1): 96–103.
27.
CooperCLapsleyI (2021) Hillsborough: The fight for accountability. Critical Perspectives on Accounting79(1): 1–26. 10.1016/j.cpa.2019.02.004.
28.
De RenziS (1854) Intorno al colera di Napoli dell’anno 1854. Relazione della Facoltà medica al Sopritendente generale ed al Supremo magistrato di salute. Napoli: Facoltàmedica.
29.
Di FioreG (2020) Pandemia 1836: La guerra dei Borbone contro il colera. Italia: UTET.
30.
DurkheimE (1982) The Rules of Sociological Method. Hall, New York: The Free Press.
31.
EvansRJ (1988) Epidemics and revolutions: Cholera in nineteenth-century Europe. Past and Present120(1): 123–146.
32.
Forti MessinaAL (1976) Il colera a Napoli nel 1836–1837. Gli aspetti demografici. Mélanges de L'école Française de Rome88(1): 319–366.
33.
GilbertPK (2004) Mapping the Victorian Social Body. Albany: State University of New York.
34.
GolsorkhiDLecaBLounsburyMRamirezC (2009) Analysing, accounting for and unmasking domination: On our role as scholars of practice, practitioners of social science and public intellectuals. Organization16(6): 779–797.
35.
GrenfellMJ (2014) Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts. New York: Routledge.
36.
GrossiGHoAJoyceJ (2020) Budgetary responses to a global pandemic: International experiences and lessons for a sustainable future. Journal of Public Budgeting & Financial Management32(5): 737–744.
37.
HammondTCooperCvan StadenC (2017) Anglo American corporation and the South African state: A contextual analysis of annual reports 1917–1975. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal30(6): 1399–1423.
38.
HardyA (1993) Cholera, quarantine and the English preventive system, 1850–1895. Medical History37(1): 250–269.
39.
HarkerRMaharCWilkesC (1990) An Introduction to the Work of Pierre Bourdieu. London: Macmillan.
40.
HopwoodAG (1983) On trying to study accounting in the contexts in which it operates. Accounting, Organizations and Society8(2/3): 287–305.
41.
HuberCGerhardtNReilleyJ (2021) Organising care during the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of accounting in German hospitals. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal34(6): 1445–1456.
42.
IkinCJohnsLHayesC (2012) Field, capital and habitus: An oral history of women in accounting in Australia during World War II. Accounting History17(2): 175–192.
43.
ImperatoPJImperatoGHImperatoAC (2015) The Second World Cholera Pandemic (1826–1849) in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies with special reference to the towns of San Prisco and Forio d’Ischia. Journal of Community Health40(6): 1224–1286.
44.
JacksonL (2014) Dirty Old London: The Victorian Fight Against Filth. London: Yale University Press.
45.
JohnsonSB (2006) The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic – and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World. New York: Riverhead Books Trade Paperbacks (Penguin Group).
46.
Lauzon ClaboLM (2008) An ethnography of pain assessment and the role of social context on two postoperative units. Journal of Advanced Nursing61(5): 531–539.
47.
LeoniF (1990) Il colera nell’Italia Meridionale (1836–1837). Roma: Editrice Apes.
48.
LeoniGLaiAStacchezziniRSteccoliniIBrammerSLinnenlueckeMDemiragI (2021a) Accounting, management and accountability in times of crisis: Lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal34(6): 1305–1319.
49.
LeoniGLaiAStacchezziniRSteccoliniIBrammerSLinnenlueckeMDemiragI (2021b) The pervasive role of accounting and accountability during the COVID-19 emergency. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal35(1): 1–19.
50.
MacveRHoskinK (1994) Writing, examining, disciplining: The genesis of accounting's modern power. In: HopwoodTMillerP (eds) Accounting as Social and Institutional Practice. Cambridge: UK, Cambridge University Press, pp. 67–97.
51.
MalschBGendronYGrazziniF (2011) Investigating interdisciplinary translations: The influence of Pierre Bourdieu on accounting literature. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal24(2): 194–228.
52.
ManettiGBellucciMBagnoliL (2017) The management of the plague in Florence at the beginning of the Renaissance: The role of the partnership between the Republic and the Confraternita of Misericordia. Accounting History22(4): 510–529.
53.
McLeanD (2005) Public Health and Politics in the Age of Reform: Cholera, the State and the Royal Navy in Victorian Britain. Regno Unito: I.B. Tauris.
54.
MiglioriSDi CimbriniTConsortiA (2019) Who is the spokesperson for whom? Intendants, budgets and action at a distance in the Kingdom of Naples during the French decade (1806–1815). Accounting History24(4): 540–561.
55.
MitchellFNørreklitHNørreklitLCinquiniLKoeppeFMagnaccaFMauroSGJakobsenMKorhonenTLaineTLiboriussenJM (2021) Evaluating performance management of COVID-19 reality in three European countries: A pragmatic constructivist study. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal34(6): 1345–1361.
56.
MoermanLvan der LaanS (2022) Accounting for and accounts of death: Past, present and future possibilities. Accounting History27(1): 6–23.
57.
MooreR (2008) Capital. In: GrenfellM (ed) Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts. Durham: Acumen, pp. 101–117.
58.
NeuD (2006) Accounting for public space. Accounting, Organizations and Society31(4–5): 391–414.
59.
NeuDHeinckeM (2004) The subaltern speaks: Financial relations and the limits of governmentality. Critical Perspectives on Accounting15(1): 179–206.
60.
NeuDLeiserSOcampoE (2008) Diffusing financial practices in Latin American higher education: Understanding the intersection between global influence and the local context. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal21(1): 49–77.
61.
NeuDOcampoE (2007) Doing missionary work: The World Bank and the diffusion of financial practices. Critical Perspectives on Accounting18(3): 363–389.
62.
NeuDOcampoEGrahamCHeinckeM (2006) Informing technologies and the World Bank. Accounting, Organizations and Society31(7): 635–662.
63.
PanethNVinten-JohansenPBrodyHRipM (1998) A rivalry of foulness: Official and unofficial investigations of the London cholera epidemic of 1854. American Journal of Public Health88(1): 1545–1553.
64.
PerkissSMoermanL (2020) Hurricane Katrina: Exploring justice and fairness as a sociology of common good(s). Critical Perspectives on Accounting67–68: 102022.
65.
PitrèG (1884) Il colera nelle credenze popolari d’Italia. Napoli: Archivio per lo Studio delle Tradizioni Popolari.
66.
PollitzerR (1954) Cholera studies. History of the disease. Bulletin of the World Health Organization10(3): 421–461.
67.
PollitzerRSwaroopSBurrowsW (1959) Cholera. Monograph Series of the World Health Organization58(43): 1001–1019.
68.
RahamanASEverettJNeuD (2007) Accounting and the move to privatise water services in Africa. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal20(5): 637–670.
69.
RosenbergCE (1962) The Cholera Year. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
70.
SabbataniSPiroF (1998) Il cholera morbus nel Comune di Bologna nel 1886 [The cholera morbus in Bologna in 1886]. Le Infezioni in Medicina4(1): 233–248.
71.
SargiacomoM (2015) Earthquakes, exceptional government and extraordinary accounting. Accounting, Organisations and Society42(1): 67–89.
72.
SargiacomoMIanniLEverettJ (2014) Accounting for suffering: Calculative practices in the field of disaster relief. Critical Perspectives on Accounting25(7): 652–669.
73.
SargiacomoMServalliSCarnegieG (2012) Accounting for killing: Accountability for death. Accounting History17(3–4): 393–413.
74.
SargiacomoMServalliSPotitoSD’AndreamatteoAGittoA (2021) Accounting for natural disasters from a historical perspective: A literature review and research agenda. Accounting History26(2): 179–204.
75.
ScamblerSNewtonP (2011) Capital transactions, disruptions and the emergence of personal capital in a lifeworld under attack. Social Theory & Health9: 130–146.
76.
SchiratoTRobertsM (2020) Bourdieu: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge.
77.
SnowJ (1855) On the Mode of Communication of Cholera. 2nd ed. London: John Churchill.
78.
SnowdenF (1995) Naples in the Time of Cholera, 1884–1911. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
