26th January 2013, 12:37 PM
(@Kevin; Sadie Watson and Chiz Harward who are both on the Diggers' Forum Comittee are and have been fighting this corner. DF are writing as the body representing the people who will bear the brunt of this.)
But this is not an issue that will go away
As living costs increase and various state benefits which have been subventing archaeological wages (and by exension units) are cut by the government the IfA is contributing to the impoverishment of single people, couples and families of those who work in British archaeology.
For too long archaeological units have relied on employees' good will while paying staff wages which keep them above the breadline, but with little move to manoeuvre.
There are many in the same situation as me in their 40s who are still renting and on HB to pay that rent. The housing situation in this country is f@*&ed, but by depressing wages we are not going to climb out f this quagmire. Rather we will sink deeper as fewer younger people wil see this as a career, and certain interested parties will see what they wish come to pass; namely, the almost total deskilling of site-staff, who dig and only dig (because anyone can dig), and an upper caste of site managers who have been to university, and whose skills are largley managerial rather than archaeological.
That is the future i see for British archaeology; and this because we still haven't signed Valletta. Moreover, one can see that the practies which have become inherent here are being noted abroad. How long before the rest of Europe adopts this mad, laissez-faire neo-liberal CMOT approach?
The minima are voluntary - and largely upheld thanks to David, although Chiz Harward's unending scrutinising of JIS ensures that few, if any, pass there - if the situation becomes a free-for-all then the race to the bottom will only lead to the bottom. Simples. That way lies poverty and skills loss, and will only ensure that the quality of work decreases. I refer everyone who quibbles on that point to read Paul Blinkhorn and Chris Cumberpatch's paper from TAG2012. Already, academic environmental archaeologists are a bit sniffy about the quality of commercial enviro work; what's the point of daing any of this if the quality of work becomes so low that the results are of use to neither man nor beast? how are we to improve rather than wash our hands? why bother with any of it if we are determined to destroy while only half doing the job? better off not knowing what we're destroying and our models of the LBA landscape and Roman towns, Anglo-saxon invasiosn could have stayedas they were 40+ years ago.
It's all changed. It's the 21st century. Not the 19th or 1960s or 1980s. We live in a post-PPG16 world which itself has evolved. Time for conditions and pay to also.
But this is not an issue that will go away
As living costs increase and various state benefits which have been subventing archaeological wages (and by exension units) are cut by the government the IfA is contributing to the impoverishment of single people, couples and families of those who work in British archaeology.
For too long archaeological units have relied on employees' good will while paying staff wages which keep them above the breadline, but with little move to manoeuvre.
There are many in the same situation as me in their 40s who are still renting and on HB to pay that rent. The housing situation in this country is f@*&ed, but by depressing wages we are not going to climb out f this quagmire. Rather we will sink deeper as fewer younger people wil see this as a career, and certain interested parties will see what they wish come to pass; namely, the almost total deskilling of site-staff, who dig and only dig (because anyone can dig), and an upper caste of site managers who have been to university, and whose skills are largley managerial rather than archaeological.
That is the future i see for British archaeology; and this because we still haven't signed Valletta. Moreover, one can see that the practies which have become inherent here are being noted abroad. How long before the rest of Europe adopts this mad, laissez-faire neo-liberal CMOT approach?
The minima are voluntary - and largely upheld thanks to David, although Chiz Harward's unending scrutinising of JIS ensures that few, if any, pass there - if the situation becomes a free-for-all then the race to the bottom will only lead to the bottom. Simples. That way lies poverty and skills loss, and will only ensure that the quality of work decreases. I refer everyone who quibbles on that point to read Paul Blinkhorn and Chris Cumberpatch's paper from TAG2012. Already, academic environmental archaeologists are a bit sniffy about the quality of commercial enviro work; what's the point of daing any of this if the quality of work becomes so low that the results are of use to neither man nor beast? how are we to improve rather than wash our hands? why bother with any of it if we are determined to destroy while only half doing the job? better off not knowing what we're destroying and our models of the LBA landscape and Roman towns, Anglo-saxon invasiosn could have stayedas they were 40+ years ago.
It's all changed. It's the 21st century. Not the 19th or 1960s or 1980s. We live in a post-PPG16 world which itself has evolved. Time for conditions and pay to also.
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