Glocal Archaeology in the UK: An Oral History Project

Globally, archaeology as a profession deals with local archaeological processes. Yet, in the United Kingdom, many international archaeologists are currently employed in public projects because of the developing infrastructure industry. Archaeology now must face multiple questions, particularly related to the dialectical relationship between small- and broader-scale processes, as well as local and global approaches. Are the archaeologists employed in these programs properly trained to work anywhere in the world and on sites from a variety of historical periods? Are stratigraphic methods and theoretical approaches really global, or are they linked strictly to specific contexts? Furthermore, is the presence of foreign archaeologists in the United Kingdom a consequence of a universal job or simply motivated by globalized economic systems? To develop a preliminary framework for these issues, we applied an ethnographic methodology to understand what ‘glocal archaeology’ really is in practice. The archaeologists we have interviewed are either employed by local companies or are freelancers working in the UK. The resulting archive of biographies thus projects an emic perspective on the glocalization phenomenon within the profession of commercial archaeology, identifying its impact on current archaeological practices and stressing the challenges that face millennial archaeologists.