11th July 2014, 06:11 PM
RedEarth Wrote:The title of this thread really suckers you into thinking it is going to contain some great insight into the issue. Unfortunately, it doesn't.
Feel free to add some!
Marc, charging researchers etc for "our" data is the quickest way to kill off the profession! It's amazing how little we really need interesting but pointless knowledge about the past, once we are asked to buy it. As an old colleague used to say, "we're making a career doing what rich men did as a hobby"...
Therein lies the rub - we cannot count on necessity driving up our wages. After all, if the concrete mixer gets it wrong because he's underpaid, the building falls down. But if the archaeologist gets it wrong, it only affects yet another dry report - the developer and his clients can carry on quite comfortably. Instead, it's about teaching society that we really need "culture" to set us above the savages. But it can be hard work selling our message without looking like that obsessed weirdo you avoid on the bus...
No matter how I look at it, unions and strikes and militancy are less & less the answer.