Professor Michael Power of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Uppsala University in Sweden.
Professor Power, a professor of accounting and director of the Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Regulation (CARR), was only one of two academics being awarded an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Social Sciences. He gave an address to the Faculty and was presented with the award at the University’s graduation ceremony for all doctorates and honorary doctorates on Friday 25 January.
Michael Power said: “It is a great honour to receive this recognition from such a distinguished university. I very much enjoyed both my visit to Uppsala and the ceremony”.
On announcing the awards, the University wrote: “In 1997, Michael Power published the book The Audit Society: rituals of verification, a book that has been widely read internationally and inspired elaborative studies. His research has also been of significance in the public debate, where reference is commonly made to ‘the audit society’. In his pioneering studies, Michael Power uncovered the development of a society not only characterized by numerous audits, but where operations are also designed with an eye to being audited, evaluated, and revised.
“Power has also done significant research work on the development and standardisation of financial regulation and reporting and their importance in the organization and governance of companies and public activities. In his latest book, Organized Uncertainty: designing a world of risk management, Power analyses the explosive growth in recent years of ‘risk management’. He shows that this growth has less to do with actual dangers and potentials than might be thought, and more to do with the prestige and legitimacy of organisations.”