ABSTRACT
Questions of ‘public engagement’ in the context of archaeology and the historic environment have been transformed over the past decade by what has been termed the ‘New Managerialism’ (Deem 2004). Numerous initiatives commissioned by the UK’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport have sought to audit the ‘public value’ of the past by compiling and analysing visitor information for museums, historic sites and other cultural attractions (eg., DCMS 2006; English Heritage 2006; Travers 2006). Heritage Counts 2006, English Heritage’s annual look at England’s historic environment, concludes that major barriers to public engagement persist in the historic environment (English Heritage 2006). Despite the museums sector’s Herculean efforts to attract more diverse audiences, Black and other visible ethnic minorities, young people outside formal education and people of all ages and ethnicities from lower socio-economic groups continue to feel excluded by those glass cases (Bourdieu 1984; Macdonald and Fyfe 1996; Merriman 1991). However, recent research indicates that the situation is slowly changing: ‘between 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 participation by socioeconomic groups C2, D&Es and by black and minority ethnic groups who have traditionally not been active users of or visitors to museums increased by 15.2 percent and 60 percent respectively’ (quoted in Travers 2006: 35). At the same time, archaeologists themselves continue to call for a more active and creative engagement in the production of archaeological narratives and images (e.g., Carman 2002; Holtorf 2006; 2007; Piccini 1996; 1999; Russell 2006a; 2006b; Shanks and Tilley 1992 [1987]).
