This theme is intentionally open-ended and invites accounting scholars to consider the multitude of ways in which accounting exists for and with communities, and how communities might be formed and reinforced through processes of accounting. The significance of community responses to epic events such as climate change, natural disasters, and military conflict is well documented (Davies, 2012; Vincent, 2023), and the CSEAR community itself has a well-established focus on addressing these urgent concerns (Dillard and Brown, 2012; Gray et al., 2009; Gray et al., 2014; Guthrie and Parker, 2017). Accounting tools and practices may facilitate the accountability of economic entities with a community focus, including cooperatives and credit unions (McKillop and Wilson, 2015), international aid agencies (Denedo et al., 2017), social enterprise (Kay and McMullan, 2017), and non-profits (Chenhall et al., 2010; Kober and Thambar, 2021). The mobilisation of community-based Indigenous accounting practices as forms of social accounting and accountability has further been explored as an alternative to Western models of economic interaction (Finau and Scobie 2022; Jayasinghe and Thomas, 2008, Norris et al., 2022; 2023). Yet while corporate and public sector entities appear increasingly concerned to engage diverse stakeholder perspectives in their reporting, approaches to community engagement have had varying success (Bellucci et al., 2019; Kaur and Qian, 2021; Kaur and Lodhia, 2018). Where tensions emerge between civil society and corporate actors, grassroots movements may take more active approaches to call dominant political and corporate actors to account (George et al., 2023; McLaren and Appleyard, 2021; Scobie et al). Of related concern within the academic literature relates to appropriate methodologies for grassroots engagement, including decolonising methodologies (McNicholas and Barrett, 2005; Smith, 2012) and participatory engagement (Brown and Dillard, 2014; Holdaway 2019), to ensure research projects engage respectfully with community partners. Building on these themes, we therefore encourage conceptual, empirical, and creative submissions that consider accounting’s role in enabling, directing, permitting or restricting communities to emerge and thrive. We also welcome other submissions of relevance to the focus of CSEAR.