27th September 2012, 11:24 AM
Well, now you've opened the can of worms! The trouble with the whole profession is that we assume it is a valid career rather than an odd hobby that some folks manage to get paid to do.
The whole research issue is a red herring. Its "customers" aren't the paying developers, but the non-paying academic community and interested folks who watch Time Team etc. While many of us got into archaeology because we like to investigate and understand the past, this isn't the part that actually pays the rent! The commercial side is driven purely by the need for developers to get planning conditions cleared, and if "research" pops out along the way it's an added bonus as far as the the market is concerned, so commercial archaeology will always devalue the resource and those who work to retrieve it. And in the capitalist world the pay and numbers of the workforce are driven purely by demand in a harshly unforgiving way - in our business there's too little work and too many workers.
Is there a better way? County units paid from a central pot that will dig a site for the developer with no tendering or other tiers of (mis)management involved as at present? All I know is the current overpopulated post-PPG system is a race to the bottom in both wages and quality.
The whole research issue is a red herring. Its "customers" aren't the paying developers, but the non-paying academic community and interested folks who watch Time Team etc. While many of us got into archaeology because we like to investigate and understand the past, this isn't the part that actually pays the rent! The commercial side is driven purely by the need for developers to get planning conditions cleared, and if "research" pops out along the way it's an added bonus as far as the the market is concerned, so commercial archaeology will always devalue the resource and those who work to retrieve it. And in the capitalist world the pay and numbers of the workforce are driven purely by demand in a harshly unforgiving way - in our business there's too little work and too many workers.
Is there a better way? County units paid from a central pot that will dig a site for the developer with no tendering or other tiers of (mis)management involved as at present? All I know is the current overpopulated post-PPG system is a race to the bottom in both wages and quality.