At a global level, we face significant challenges which can best be addressed by working together in a communal
approach characterised by mutuality and a focus on common goals which are intended to benefit society at large. This
realisation has revitalized interest in notions of the ‘common good’. Subordinated in recent centuries to more utilitarian
concepts of ‘wealth’ and ‘value’, the re-emergence of this idea as discussed below points to a new awareness that issues
of interdependence and citizenship must be galvanized in any meaningful attempt to ensure a sustainable future. Given
the capacity of accounting to impact behaviour, we see it as our responsibility as academics and practitioners to explore
the broad parameters within which this idea of the common good might be best deployed. To this end, drawing on a rich
intellectual history that embraces the writings of Aristotle, Aquinas and others, we take the opportunity to gather an
eclectic group of articles that touch on the practical as well as the conceptual implications of this idea, and to flag the
potential for a richer articulation of accounting’s capacity to galvanise the concept in future research.

In essence, we propose that tracing the origins of the common good to Aristotle - through the lens of Thomas Aquinas -
can open the possibility of a less utilitarian view of accounting, allowing us to see what might lie beyond a current
conception of accounting that is entity-based and focused on serving the specific needs of a narrow group of
stakeholders. This conceptualisation of the common good offers something as a foundation to accounting that is bigger
than the public interest, and arguably, more appropriate to a world that faces significant and overlapping challenges, of
which the climate crisis is just one example. We propose that reconsidering the common good offers a way of thinking
about accounting and the public interest that recognises the kinds of collaborative actions and relationships that will be
needed, and we aim in so doing to open avenues of research in accounting and accountability with the common good in
mind.