5th July 2009, 10:57 PM
Here, here Oldgirl.
Concern over the use of volunteers in commercial archaeology is not the same as knee jerk protectionism. In any other business/industry concerns over protectism would be do with being undercut by cheaper labour, not people working for free. However, it would be interesting to see if anyone does have a genuine example of volunteers taking paid jobs.
Having said that, it is a very difficult area and the effects on professionals (if there actually are any) might be quite subtle. I'm all in favour of community projects, if well run etc, but I have come across several that are anything but and are being run by 'archaeologists' of dubious qualification and ability (in fact, it was the first thing I moaned about on the BAJR forum!). I'm concerned about the notion too that seems to be currently popular amongst some that community projects are the way forward in these difficult times - I really can't see how that will work as most only seem to to employ a small number of archaeologist anyway, which is hardly a long-term plan.
As for the question how to people gain experience? If universities actually taught anything useful that wouldn't be such a problem; if commercial organisations actually paid for training, that wouldn't be such a problem. Some already mentioned shooting ourselves in the foot I think....
Concern over the use of volunteers in commercial archaeology is not the same as knee jerk protectionism. In any other business/industry concerns over protectism would be do with being undercut by cheaper labour, not people working for free. However, it would be interesting to see if anyone does have a genuine example of volunteers taking paid jobs.
Having said that, it is a very difficult area and the effects on professionals (if there actually are any) might be quite subtle. I'm all in favour of community projects, if well run etc, but I have come across several that are anything but and are being run by 'archaeologists' of dubious qualification and ability (in fact, it was the first thing I moaned about on the BAJR forum!). I'm concerned about the notion too that seems to be currently popular amongst some that community projects are the way forward in these difficult times - I really can't see how that will work as most only seem to to employ a small number of archaeologist anyway, which is hardly a long-term plan.
As for the question how to people gain experience? If universities actually taught anything useful that wouldn't be such a problem; if commercial organisations actually paid for training, that wouldn't be such a problem. Some already mentioned shooting ourselves in the foot I think....