Paper short abstract:

My discussion here is concerned with the strain archaeology experiences in the task for the recognition of difference in face of the 'public' expectation of unified accounts of the past.

Paper long abstract:

My discussion here is concerned with the strain archaeology experiences in the task for the recognition of difference in face of the 'public' expectation of unified accounts of the past. The focus for this discussion is centred on emerging debates arising within archaeology from issues regarding its relation with the media. Previously focused on matters of misrepresentation, the necessity for crisis-management in archaeology initiated action in local conflicts to secure claims of legitimacy as the knowledgeable custodians of the past. Risk-assessment within these mitigation strategies presupposed homogenised sovereign value-criteria against which judgements of appropriate action could be agreed upon by management decision-makers. However, the mediatization of the intellectual economy, and the development of increasingly accessible instant communication technologies has formed a new context for questions of accountability, whilst setting new constraints and possibilities for cultural tourism. The boundaries neatly delineating internal conflicts of images from external ('alternative') claims to knowledge have a mobility that fits uncomfortably with the traditional security of sovereign value systems. The issues entwining media, crisis and legitimacy are illustrated in an ongoing conflict of images at a wetland archaeology heritage centre in the Cambridgeshire fenlands. Here contrasting matters of science, climate change, land-use, heritage conservation and sustainable biodiversity, have their expression in varying media forms through local residents, local and national government policy, regional industry, heritage authorities and activist groups. The difficulties of peaceful resolution will be placed into question.