Manifesto Analyses for Heritage & Culture in the UK General Election - WB 2nd July 2024

[@robertbennett270]

The CBA is interesting, particularly with public engagement. I'm not an archaeologist but I've subscribed for many years because of the quality of the British Archaeology magazine. This because I wanted to find out about archaeology, to read academic articles and then go on to read papers and books by experts in the field led by what I read in BA. It has become noticeable that the magazine has changed and it is now more about to practice and practitioners, not exclusively but more so than in the past, a lot more so. This has led me to seriously consider ending my subscription and switching to Current Archaeology, and I'm not the only friend considering the same. I understand that archaeologists need their 'own' magazine, but British Archaeology is no longer what I need.

[@1020bear61]

The voice of professional developer funded archaeology and its practitioners has become a very powerful in UK archaeology and we have observed a possible drift towards it thinking of itself as the most important voice. Clearly professionalism and good practice are critical to the health of the sector, but UK archaeology is a broad church and personally I would be very concerned if CBA and others were perceived rightly or wrongly, as adopting a gate keeping role rather than a welcoming role. After all, it was set up 80 years ago to support British Archaeology in all its aspects. In the light of that remit British Archaeology should be the leading popular magazine speaking to and on behalf of the sector and it has certainly been refreshed under its new editor Dr Cat Jarman, but you are right that it must not become a clone of CIfA's the Archaeologist aimed primarily at practitioners. In fact I would argue Brit Arch should have a role in examining those professional practitioners as a critical friend and helping drive developments in ethics, practice and inclusion across the sector as the CBA did in its early days.