5:00pm | Mrs Thatcher and the privatisation of knowledge: the evolution of archaeological practice in Britain since 1990 | Gill Hey
In 1990, Mrs Thatcher’s Conservative government issued new planning guidance to local authority planning departments, setting out how archaeological remains on sites to be developed should either be preserved or recorded. Importantly, the cost of any work (mitigation) was to be borne, in the vast majority of cases, by the developer. This fell within the Conservative party’s strategy to privatise many sectors of industry and business, to cut costs and red tape and increase efficiency; gas, water and the railways are well-known examples, but consideration was also given to privatising universities. Henceforth, archaeological work in the UK would no longer be the preserve of universities, museums and local government units.
Since that time, there has been an exponential increase in the amount of money spent on archaeology, the size of projects and the number of archaeologists. What has the effect been on the acquisition and sharing of the knowledge gained? This talk will explore how the discipline has evolved, its methodologies, its relationship to theoretical concerns and the benefits (or otherwise) that have been derived.
