L’approccio cognitivo-semiotico in Ragioneria: profili storici nel tempo e nello spazio

The cognitive-semiotic approach in Ragioneria: historical and geographical notes This paper aims to investigate the semiotic approach in the Italian Ragioneria by comparing from one side its own historical perspective and from the other side thegeographical perspective of the Comparative Accounting. In the historical view, the paper outlines the explicit contributions of Italian research in the twentieth century that improved the semiotic conception of the Ragioneria. It is well known how in the last century the ‘Economia aziendale’ experienced an unquestionable success in Italy while in an opposite way the Ragioneria faced the problem of its repositioning within the business economicsdisciplines. In reflecting on its disciplinary nature, some authors proposed an evolution of the Ragioneria to a semiotic perspective. According to those authors a‘modern’ disciplinary identity for the Ragioneria can derive from its conception as a discipline translating the administrative phenomena of the ‘azienda’ and its environment into signs. In the comparative view, the paper provides examples to illustrate a number of critical semiotic questions and terminological incompatibilities between the languages of Ragioneria and Accounting. Those examples underline some “points of contact” between the two disciplines that can be used for elaborating an administrative semiotics, at least compatible with the Anglo-American culture, and a conventional language with a broader heuristic effectiveness