10th September 2008, 01:53 PM
Posted by diggingthedirt:
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
Quote:quote:The architect/consultant engineer analogy works for me in relation to the UK, but can't be applied to Ireland, unless the work is infrastructural.Well, I can't really comment about that - my post was based essentially on the UK situation.
Quote:quote:I maintain the point that the artificial nature of the market makes this arrangement problematic, and disagree with the premise that archaeology is equivalent to any other environmental field.The point is that the market is equally artificial in other environmental fields. As an example, developers only do surveys for protected species befor their planning application because they won't get permission otherwise (just like archaeological DBAs or evaluations), and they only take steps to prevent or mitigate for impacts on protected species because they have to comply with planning conditions (just like archaeological excavations).
Quote:quote:Thinking of archaeology as a non-renewable resource (like minerals, habitats and rare forms of butterfly) imbues it with a value independent of our engagement with it. The danger of this is that the process ceases to be inquisitive â the past is preserved by record, and the people who eventually interpret this record are not likely to be the same people that created it.But this is the premise on which the whole statutory/planning regime in relation to archaeology is based - that it does have an independent value. If it doesn't have "a value independent of our engagement with it", how can we justify asking any individual who does not feel himself to be engaged with it (a developer, for instance) to pay for archaeological work? We would get back to the old 1970's chestnut of "why should I fund your hobby?"
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished