New publication – a report by Hilary Orange, Poppy German and Doug Rocks-Macqueen on Public Engagement in Development-led Archaeology: a Survey has been published as a Landward Occasional Paper (003) and is available for free download.
Download: Public Engagement in Development-led Archaeology: a Survey
This report was produced following an online survey in 2013 of UK development-led archaeologists. The survey was one element within a wider project on public engagement in development-led archaeology carried out by Hilary Orange in 2012-13 and its aim was to gather data on the challenges that these archaeologists face in carrying out public engagement activities. The development-led sector is important to discussions on public archaeology due to its scale of work. In 2011, Fulford estimated that around 90 percent of all archaeological investigations in the UK were carried out by development-led archaeologists (2011, 33).
The data presented in this report draws on the responses of 181 individuals.
It provides insights into attitudes to public engagement and how it is practiced in development-led archaeology. Key findings are:
• most do not view public engagement as an archaeological skill;
• over 70% had never received training in public engagement;
• there is a range of opinions on what activities constitute public engagement;
• public engagement is not always seen as a specialist/professional undertaking;
• there is significant undertaking of public engagement activities;
• most of those activities take place during work, but for some public engagement was only done on their own time;
• money and non-disclosure agreements are barriers to public engagement;
• such work is usually acknowledged in a variety of forms, the most common being social media.
Report available for free download Public Engagement in Development-led Archaeology: a Survey
