27th April 2010, 08:04 PM
kevin wooldridge Wrote:...I now think the way to control archaeology (standards and ethics), to improve terms and conditions of employment and to put a brake on the number of professional practitioners of archaeology is to franchise a limited number of archaeological undertakings. These undertakings will work within a fixed price set-up for the type of work they offer, will offer a national fixed scale of payments for archaeological work (be it wages or fess) and will work either within a fixed geographic area or to a specific archaeological specialism or specialisms....
How would all that work in the merry world of commercial archaeology where we're all at the whim of variations in the construction industry and jobs can't be planned from one week to the next?
Or are you suggesting binning all that and going back effectively to county units funded from a central source, like in the 'good old days'? Who would pay, and if you're suggesting taxing the construction industry etc how would you guarantee a suffiently stable cash-flow to support the system? Franchises have been suggested before (such ideas seemingly eminating ultimately from certain large southern units who think they would be able to divide up the country between them by wiping out the competition) and, after some consideration, not given much credence? :face-huh: