A survey of UK Field Archaeologists

[Mike.T.]

Is it ?

All the Archaeologists that i've ever worked with have been devout churchgoers and teetotalers.

[monty]

..........ive come across all types over the years but definitely an atheist/alternative leaning the most prevalent..........

[chiz]

can you ask whether respondents have any work related injuries or medical conditions? Whether they work part time? how many children? mortgage, rented or no accommodation? number of employers since starting archaeological career? no of breaks from archaeology? other jobs taken whilst 'resting' from archaeology? What age did you start your archaeological career on site? On what type of site -commercial, research dig?

I can't remember the questions from the Invisible Digger survey, maybe worth contacting Paul Everill? If you are going to run these regularly then I'd be interested in not just the standard questions that are covered by Profiling the Profession, but questions looking a bit deeper into who we are and how we are doing?

[Dirty Dave Lincoln]

Bob, cor blimey guv that aint a survey-that would be a biography- unless of course your secretly collecting info for a government data base :face-huh:

[chiz]

Dave, whilst I appreciate you're speaking tongue in cheek, and yes it is biographical info... Profiling the profession, and the invisible diggers surveys both took a lot of information and provide extensive and thought-provoking statistics that are well worth looking through in detail.
In order that this e-survey doesn't merely duplicate the IFA/Paul's results, I was suggesting some complementary questions that may help us understand issues that 'we' feel exist in archaeology, i.e. job mobility aka 'the circuit', injuries/poor health aka archaeologists always have bad knees and backs, and housing problems....more relevant than religious belief to me?

This does have a serious point. If we want to lobby for better conditions etc then we need to know what the existing issues are. Now this e-survey won't be statistically valid, unlike the IFA survey, but if Matthew gets 'interesting' results from his survey, then perhaps we can persuade the IFA to include those questions in the next Profiling the Profession?
That's got to be worth it, no?

[Dirty Dave Lincoln]

"Thats got to be worth it, no?"
I can't agree more, but I would also sugest not just types of injuries but how they happen-was it the person fault? someone else's? or even due to lack of site H&S,and also has injuries caused lomg term problems for them (96 I hurt my back when I stood up fast and hit it on a concrete block sticking out the section!took two years before I was back to full health and my doctor said it will lead to arthritis as I grow older!),as you say such a survey is needed.
Yes, I was being tongue in cheek when I wrote it-but I was on my second bottle of wine by half eleven[xx(]

[chiz]

Yep, good point (but harder to get accurate and true results). One of the things surveys like this could do is highlight issues that need further research. Ultimately a combination of the IFA/BAJR has the widest reach to get a comprehensive and valid set of replies, if we can get the IFA to look at what 'we' see to be problems within the industry, and they then produce statistical evidence that there is a real problem, then we can pressurise them to do something about it. It's not easy of course, least of all in these troubled times, but I think its worth plugging away. Of course it would probably go the way of the benchmarking....

Of course it shouldn't be just to highlight issues that affect 'diggers', there's equally vital research into issues affecting managers and specialists etc

Second bottle of wine? What's the world coming to...

[Dirty Dave Lincoln]

quote "then we can pressurise them to do something about it"
Highlighting problems within the proffession and lobying the IFA for change could be part of the task of the BAJR federation that Hosty raised on another thread.

quote "there's equally vital research into issues affecting managers and specialists etc"
Matthew, what do you think of the idea of producing more than just one survey? surveys with questions that deal with issues unique to the various groups as noted by Bob. Would it be possible to produce more comprehensible profiles by breaking it down further?

[BAJR Host]

I feel that a lobby group is in the offing..


"Gie's a Job.."
Prof. 'Dolly' Parton

[matthew.law]

yes, this is great stuff. Thanks.
I think Bob's really onto something with some of those questions.l spent the last six months of 2006 doing office work after a rotator cuff injury.Things like home ownership, marriage and children would be very interesting to study.
One thing l don't want to do is bombard people with too many questions,as l think it'll just be off-putting.l'll review the existing questions though. I think there are seventeen now,but we could go up to twenty or even twenty-five.
In terms of other groups, l had tentative plans to tackle museum archaeologists and finds/enviro specialists in the new year,but we could take it further, perhaps DC archaeologists/HER staff, Academics, and Consultants/Project and Unit Managers. Of course,some people are many of these things...
ln terms of the present survey, we were planning to break the results into three groups, roughly corresponding to Site Assistant, Supervisor, Project Officer.