Archaeologists against the cuts

[Madweasels]

Vaizey was talking to the MA conference earlier today (Tuesday). Summary here http://bit.ly/aqnGuY

"Do more with less!" Hasn't that been our sector's family motto for decades?

[BillyPilgrim]

If we all really cared we'd join the IFA or create a new body for ourselves and all stand up together. Surely we should be in alliance with construction unions not artists and actors! If all the actors get fired they can replace them with the Hollyoaks cast, if we all lose our jobs they'll probably just replace us with monkeys or dogs or a fantastical alliance of both!

Archaeology is, baring some sort of October miracle, facing a crisis. A new (to me) report on this subject (available for free), Archaeology and the Global Economic Crisis (Nathan Schlanger and Kenneth Aitchison eds.), contains an interesting paper by Anthony Sinclair on HE and archaeology:

“It has also been argued that the production of many more archaeology graduates than the actual number of employment places has had a damaging effect on the professional sector because of the surfeit of applicants for even the lowest paid jobs...[therefore] A reduced archaeological graduate output, resulting in a closer alignment between the number of archaeology graduates and places in the labour market for professional employment would appear to be no bad thing. Unfortunately this assumes that enough archaeology students will still seek a career in archaeology...If the overall number of archaeology graduates decreases, private contractors may no longer be able to entice new graduates into the profession”.

(p 42, 'The end of a golden age? The impending effects of the economic collapse on archaeology in higher education in the United Kingdom')

The emphasis is mine. What I was trying to get across in my first post and again in the above quote is that no area of archaeology is an island. Each sector - commercial, local government, museum, national body, education - is deeply interlinked and an unthinking, ideologically driven retrenchment in one hurts us all.

I have no real idea who Archaeologists for Global Justice are and I don’t agree with all their aims, but when facing a crisis of this size we have to work together. We should not as professionals expect to be applauded for what we do. We should as mature professionals be able to work together across sectors to provide a coherent consensus building argument to the public about who we are and what we do.

And yes, that should involve working with construction unions and artists.

[JSA]

They wouldn't go on strike anyway. It's easier to put up with rubbish pay and no job security than have the bottle to do something about it. :face-stir:

And there lies the root of most problems with British field archaeology, lack of bottle.

[Sith]

“If the overall number of archaeology graduates decreases, private contractors may no longer be able to entice new graduates into the profession”.

I can see this becoming especially difficult if the mooted 'Graduate Tax' comes to be. I can't imagine a career in archaeology being attractive if you're going to be financially squeesed for being a 'highly paid graduate' while existing on an archaeologist's salary.

[Unitof1]

Each sector - commercial, local government, museum, national body, education - is deeply interlinked and an unthinking, ideologically driven retrenchment in one hurts us all.
I dont think that they are deeply interlined. I have nothing to do with museums for a start. See Roman helmet. They are mostly subsidiaries of disney world which as you have pointed out they are likely to get even closer to next with the national body:
http://ihbcscotland.org.uk/?p=257
who are supposed to be statutory advisors to the government but really are the competition for the national trust tax fiddle who should take over most of their assets.
Then there’s local government-get rid of curators they are an embarrassment particularly their paid for membership of the ifa
As for education and the source of this so called coalition of resistance the universities have had an unchecked boom in producing graduates and expanding departments and moronic research over the last 20 years which had no relationship to archaeology. About a 95% over capacity. Or to put in into words that you can understand <edited for AUP> university archaeology department is rubbish and should be closed down, whats particularly rubbish is its <edited for AUP> section. Just out of interest what is the proportion of Oxbridge graduates teaching in these departments, is all about class

[url=http://www.kirkerholidays.com/tour-lecturers-index.aspx][/url]

just picked up a small pre evaluation- the client told me what the others had bid. I used this approach-what other quotes have you had?

[Dinosaur]

Seem to remember several months ago on another thread me querying what exactly all the university places for archaeology undergraduates are for, the vast majority of those graduates end their involvement at that point and go off to get jobs in banks. Why are taxpayers (and yes, that includes us diggers, the ones who bother declaring their self-employed ill-gotten gains, anyway) having to fork out for all this? The profession needs enough with a reasonable margin for 'wastage', but the current numbers are ridiculous! :face-stir:

[BillyPilgrim]

@Unitof1

I have nothing to do with museums for a start

Erm, out of interest what do you do with the objects you excavate?

Then there’s local government-get rid of curators

Lose the curators? Do you not think that mig

[kevin wooldridge]

I don’t think we are necessarily talking about strikes here. I don’t know about the Coalition of Resistance, but certainly union thinking is about constructing consensus, how to build alliances with communities outside the union family educate people about the impact of big cuts in public spending. This is certainly an approach archaeologists would do well to adopt. Rescue appear to be doing very well on this regard; taking the first step of documenting the effect of cuts (it’s hard to protest if you can’t be completely sure of what’s at risk). ....stand up and fight for it.

Well said Billy. I agree with every word.

There is much more that archaeologists can do other than go on strike. I think the essence of these coming campaigns (and at the end of the day those who will come out with the least losses) will be those people who fight, fight and continue to fight and to use all avenues and resources to keeep the campaigns in the public spotlight. True across the board, but particularly true for archaeology and heritage in general. I realise that some people are more committed than others and some will give up before the battle is even fought, but for some of us there are no options other than to join in. There is no position to fall back on other than what this damn career gives....

As someone greater and more famous than me said 'you have nothing to lose but your bonds of servitude' or something to that effect.....

[Dinosaur]

@Dinosaur
There may previously have been more graduates than jobs, but as suggested in the Sinclair quote it looks like this is rapidly changing. You yourself in the accommodation advice thread commented on the generation gap that appears to be opening up, do we want this to get worse?

But adding more 21-year old inexperienced diggers at the 'bottom' of the system (no offence meant to those just starting out in this merry profession!) is just going to widen the yawning age/skills gap, we need to keep the medium-experienced but badly disillusioned crew in their late 20s and 30s (the over-experienced/skilled old gits of the future), not replace them with enthusiastic bright young things with no experience at all, although obviously a healthy intake of same is always welcome, but if we keep doing that the skills-pool in British archaeology is just going to spiral into the ground! The skills/experience spread needs balancing and that means keeping hold of the p***ed-off diggers in the middle of the range, somehow. Unfortunately for archaeology they tend to be the people most able to go get a better-paid job doing something else, and from what I've been watching over the last few years, have been in droves.....

[BAJR]

I do find myself in that category... just been joined on site by another old lag, so that between us we have 60 years experience in the field... and that is the literal field. THe rest are good, but mention that they don't often meet people like us who can pass on hints like front filling the barrow or how to set up a total station over a peg in a minute flat.. (well... 1 min 8 seconds today!) and be ready to take points. the mid range are not going to become old lags... so where to go? I will die one day! we do indeed have to try and hold onto the middle range... and a remuneration for skill and experience is useful. Not knocking my current digging job but I am on the same rate as a beginner for whom this is their first job.

Biggent worry... there won't be any archaeology soon!

Don't worry about Unit.... treat it as background noise... you can always ignore him