Conceptualising and Operationalising Equity: Global Lessons from Social Equity Budgeting

The aim of the Essex Accounting Centre (EAC) research seminar series is to support our world-class research activities in five key areas: accounting and global development; capital Markets, audit, regulation & reporting; publicness and resilience, precarity, exclusion & social justice; and environment, climate change & vulnerability. The seminar series is also expected to promote inter-disciplinary research that links the work of members of the centre with others both within the university and with external institutions.

An enduring question in public administration research and practice is what social equity means both conceptually and operationally. While social equity can be broadly conceptually defined as “fairness, due process, and equal protection for all,” what these terms mean operationally for public service agencies remains elusive.

This presentation will explore these enduring definitional issues in the context of social equity budgeting (SEB), a critical yet under-explored area in public administration that challenges traditional, "equity-neutral," budgeting practices and that aims to incorporate fairness, due process, and equal protection into the allocation of public resources.

This presentation will draw from three research strains. First, using philosophy, sociology, and psychology as a backdrop, the presentation will examine patterns in how equity is conceptualized at societal, legal, and political levels. Second, the presentation will draw from a qualitative, phenomenological study of six U.S. SEB early adopter cities. Third, the preliminary results of an event history analysis utilizing survey data from budget directors across 100 North Carolina counties from 2010-2023 will be presented.

Across these strains, lessons emerge concerning how equity becomes conceptually and operationally defined in SEB, including the importance of societal discourses, grassroots efforts, receptive elected leaders, administrator “buy-in,” innovative community engagement, and equity assessment tools.