WORLD CONGRESSES OF ACCOUNTING HISTORIANS, 1970 –2006:AN EVALUATION

The World Congresses of Accounting Historians, the first of which was initiated by M. Ernest Stevelinck, in Brussels, Belgium, in 1970, were held in four continents- four of them in Europe, three in North America, two in Australia, and one in Japan. It is difficult to support the notion that the staging of these Congresses should be limited to so few countries. Thus, it is necessary that forthcoming congresses are organized in places like Middle East, South America, China and India amongst others. The pull of Globalization requires the adoption of a more international approach to the holding of conferences. Since the first Congress, both the number of participants and the number of papers presented have increased in number. The highest level of participation was 350 people in Madrid while the greatest numbers of papers (114 papers) were discussed at the Congress of St. Louis and Oxford, USA, in 2004. The total number of papers submitted to congresses thus far has reached 547 in total and the total number of participants stands at approximately 1500