He is best known for his studies of accounting power in action: that is how governments, international organizations and corporations use accounting to govern and subjugate less powerful members of society, and how the less powerful respond and resist. This genre of
accounting research—what is often referred to as critical accounting research or
public interest accounting research—tends to use the
case study method to examine how
accounting is used in certain settings as well as the associated consequences. The starting point is the recognition that accounting numbers both help make certain aspects of organizational reality visible and distributes economic resources. This research differs from other accounting research such as
positive accounting which assumes that research is descriptive rather than normative. Neu's publications include: • • • Along with other publicly-interested accounting academics such as
David J. Cooper,
Abraham J. Briloff,
Christine Cooper and
Prem Sikka, he has practiced public interest accounting through both his research and through his participation in the public sphere. These public interventions include speaking out against concrete forms of
neo-liberalism such as government
privatization and deficit-cutting activities that disproportionately affect the most vulnerable members of society. ==Intellectual lineage==