On the Case: Methodology in Public Archaeology

Summary

Public engagement by archaeologists has become well-entrenched in the ethics codes and practice of the profession. Specialized journals now present reports on public and community archaeology projects, usually in the form of individual case studies. However, the growing number of public archaeology projects been accompanied neither by the development of standard practice methodologies nor by a tradition of assessment of project outcomes against defined objectives. As a result, the self-reflective project and program evaluation common in other social science fields is largely absent in public archaeology. While it is true that public engagement with archaeology is contingent on the local context, the same is true in disciplines such as political science or education, where methodology and outcome evaluation are priorities. This paper draws upon an analysis of the papers published since inception in the journal Public Archaeology to illustrate the issues. It then proposes a case-study methodology derived from the international relations field as an alternative approach to evaluating and reporting the results of public archaeology projects. Finally, the author’s application of this methodology to research in communities in three countries provide a working example of the value of taking a more structured, hypothesis-driven approach to public engagement projects.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Assessing Outcomes in Public Archaeology: Imperatives, Perils, and Frameworks

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