Dynamics of social control and accounting practices: the case of the penal colony of Guyana (1852-1867).

Summary This paper is part of the literature on the modalities of social control (Walker, 2016). It starts from an archival research on the implementation of cost calculation in the 1860s in the penal colony of Guyana, with a view to social control. The paper highlights two types of contributions: first, it allows for a deeper understanding of Walker's categories of social control (correct, restrain and confirmatory) by detailing the effects. Secondly, it enriches this literature by highlighting three consequences of social control: the phenomena of resistance on the one hand, the change in the initial objectives due to the changes induced by the accounting tool and finally the need to implement new tools to ensure social control.