Dear colleagues,

Please find below a call for presentations in a session entitled 
'Archaeological research and practice in an audit society' for this year's 
TAG in Southampton, 15-17 Dec (http://www.tagconference.org/2008). 
Abstracts for papers of 10-15 minutes duration should be sent either to the 
session organisers or uploaded via the TAG website by September 1st.

Many thanks, and apologies for any cross-posting,
Marcus Brittain & Karina Croucher
------------------------------------

C4P: 'Archaeological research and practice in an audit society'

Marcus Brittain (Cambridge Archaeological Unit; [log in to unmask]) and Karina 
Croucher (University of Manchester; [log in to unmask])

In the last twenty years both commercial and academic archaeological 
institutes have come under increasing pressure to show a commitment to 
auditing procedures that monitor quality, productivity and accountability. 
This requirement corresponds with a broader social desire for transparency 
of, and responsibility for, ideas and actions, theory and practice. This 
has been referred to as the 'audit society' (Power 1998) or the 'audit 
culture' (Strathern 2000). Whilst auditing systems have clearly inculcated 
some positive benefits for research, particularly in areas of management, 
they have generally been criticised for their impact upon the pattern of 
intellectual activity and the flow of knowledge systems (Rainbird & 
Hamilakis 2001; Hamilakis 2004). In effect, financial audit has been 
exported to the public sector, via new public management and accountability 
towards 'stakeholders'. Many of the consequences for archaeological 
practice have been financial, but many others are social, cultural and 
ontological.

This session will offer a critical perspective on the impact of the audit 
society on rituals of archaeological research and practice, taking as a 
frame for analysis the culture of professional archaeology and its response 
to changing conditions of possibility and constraint.

Papers will be 10-15 minutes with an emphasis on discussion. Whilst we 
welcome a broad range of contributions on this theme, participants may also 
wish to consider some of the following issues:

~ Is the audit society a new phenomenon in archaeology? ~ How, if at all, 
has today's audit society impacted upon the course of archaeological 
research? ~ How have the new accountabilities in the audit society 
transformed archaeological rituals of verification, justification and 
recognition? ~ Is there a broadening distinction between the destination of 
the research process and the designation of the subject of research? ~ Are 
formal systems of 'best practice', monitoring, and management targets, 
commensurable with the local everyday practices of intellectual engagement 
in archaeology? If so, then how? If not, then what sustains these systems 
of audit within the culture of archaeological practice? ~ Is it all 
negative? What could an 'audit culture' contribute to the discipline of 
archaeology? ~ Why have systems of audit attracted so little critique or 
resistance by archaeologists? Is the audit society becoming unquestioned 
normative practice in archaeology? Is critique of the audit society taboo 
in archaeology? ~ In what sort of culture do such systems become 
acceptable? And how might this be confronted or resisted by archaeologists? 
Does it need to be?

References

Hamilakis, Y (2004) Archaeology and the politics of pedagogy. World 
Archaeology, 36(2), 287-309

Power, M (1998) The Audit Society: Rituals of verification. Oxford: Oxford 
University Press

Rainbird, P and Hamilakis, Y (eds.) (2001) Interrogating Pedagogies: 
Archaeology in higher education. Oxford: British Archaeologogical Reports 
(Int. Ser.) 948

Strathern, M (ed.) (2000) Audit Cultures: Anthropological studies in 
accountability, ethics and the academy. London & NY: Routledge


-- 
Dr. Marcus Brittain 
Cambridge Archaeological Unit
University of Cambridge

mob. 07811 499196