Recently, Nathan Schlanger and Kenneth Atichison edited a report of the effects of the global economic crisis on archaeology, published by ACE Project and Culture Lab Editions. While this report mainly focuses on the US and specific countries in Europe, does it reflect worldwide trends in economics and archaeology? Is the field of archaeology suffering major declines due to the economic climate? If so, are these changes permanent or transitory? How can we quantify anecdotal or media evidence? Are the changes destructive or constructive? As archaeologists, we should be aware of how these events have a way of being cyclical.
The editors are collecting information on the effects of the global crisis on archaeology for a future publication, so are interested in hearing from the community.
The situation is the opposite with regard to 'hidden' or 'secret' artifacts that affect other-species movements and clusters, that in turn affect atmospheric geophysics and hence the climate.
ReplyDeleteRachel, Thanks for posting this important publication. I will be positing links to it on the various lists that I am on.
ReplyDeleteThe sections that I have read of this publication put at least qualitative data to what I've experienced and have been hearing anecdotally
I would assume that someone in the U.S. is collecting 1) membership data for organizations like the SAA, ACRA or state or regional professional archaeological societies, 2) Subscription rates to national and regional archaeological journals, 3) attendance at national and regional archaeological conferences, 4) Post-graduate enrollment in archaeology programs.
How can we change the trend?
A local consulting firm that does much environmental (and occasionally some archaeological) work reported an increased work load due to a positive impact of the economic stimulus. Has archaeology benefited at all from the stimulus package?
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