Auditing and the production of legitimacy

This essay discusses an important series of formative contributions to contextualist and critical research in auditing. A small number of relatively recent papers question rationalized accounts of the audit process and explore the complex 'back stage' of practice. These papers are interpreted as contributions to our understanding of the production of legitimacy around four substantive themes: the audit process and formal structure; auditing as a business; working papers and image management; new audits. The papers also point to the socially constructed nature of professional inference and suggest a fruitful basis for taking these research efforts forward. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.