Engaging Communities in the ‘Big Society’: What Impact is the Localism Agenda having on Community Archaeology?

Expert Leadership and Hidden Inequalities in Community Projects

“…Perkin (2010) suggests that this authority leads to issues of top-down approaches by the 'educated elite' deciding what disadvantaged communities need rather than enabling the interpretation of alternative and diverse histories and empowering communities to celebrate their own unique identities. Jackson et al (2014) also point to the notion that communities are not something that people or places have; they are what people do in the place they value. For example, there is a danger that the government focus on the 'Big Society' will create projects carefully managed by experts with a passive community voice (Breen et al 2015).…”

“…From experiences in Africa and Australia (Greer 2014;Breen et al 2015), a post processual theorizing has come into being which focuses on interpretation rather than just the object itself. This involves the acceptance of multiple narratives and new interpretations based on an emotive root to the past (Jackson et al 2014;Stepney and Popple 2008;Greer 2014). This does, however, require equality between the community and expert voice, without hidden inequalities becoming manifest (Kok 2009).…”

“…Perkin (2010) expresses the concern that currently it is government policy to view cultural institutions in the role of building social cohesion, reducing hidden inequalities, improving lifelong learning and self-esteem. This however, requires the 'expert to engage with the community interpretation of the objects, artefacts and site (Greer, 2014), rather than 'reporting, describing or mirroring an objectively existing reality' (Watson, 2000 p.499), the later performance reverts meaning-making to a 'topdown' model that subsumes 'the community' interpretations (Jackson et al 2014;Smith and Waterton 2010;Judson et al 2014), preventing the richness of meaning coming forth (Perkin 2010), and reinforcing hidden inequalities based on ideas of authority, power and expertise, within the community group.…”

The Post-excavation Analysis and Archiving of Outputs from Complex, Multi-period Landscape Investigations: the example of Heslington East, York

“…Thus an initial desk-top study by an external consultant led to two different phases of commercial work carried out by competing businesses (YAT and OSA), the latter overseen by yet another consultant. An intervening, non-commercial element by the DoA facilitated student training and community engagement (the last an attempt to seal the growing rift between local people and their heritage noted above (Figure 3; see also Jackson et al 2014). Furthermore, the majority of specialists employed to analyse the assemblages generated by the fieldwork operated on separate time scales.…”

Community Archaeology in the Netherlands

“…Politicians in several cities around the world have also showed interest in turning heritage sites into spaces that could either be transformed in sites of community engagement or touristic attractions (e.g. Appler, 2015;Degen and García, 2012;Jackson et al, 2014).…”