Abstract

The simple aim of this chapter is to encourage some reflection on the accountability of those academics who study public accountability by locating them within the analytical construct of a social “accountability space” that is, by definition, replete with its own demands, expectations and tensions. This is achieved through a focus on the creation, management and politics of public expectations vis-à-vis accountability. Locating the issue of accountability within the parameters of a debate concerning the balance or relationship between “supply” and “demand” raises fresh questions about whether an “accountability gap” actually exists and how it might be closed. It also provides a distinctive twist to questions concerning the framing of various accountability “crises,” “gaps” and “deficits,” the professional responsibilities of academics to the public, and the future of “accountability studies” as a fledgling field of inquiry in its own right.