THINKING GLOBALLY: LINKING UK RESEARCH FRAMEWORKS ACROSS EUROPE
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2020-12-25

There has been significant investment across the UK in the development of regional, national and subject-based research frameworks, but many of the questions which have emerged have raised issues that transcend national boundaries. Prehistoric pottery specialists, for example, have emphasised in a recently published research framework the importance of focusing more closely upon ceramic interactions across the European continent. Similarly, at the other end of the chronological spectrum, industrial archaeologists working on the origins of the factory system and its global impact have emphasised the need to investigate the close linkages between pioneer industrialists from Britain to Russia, and beyond that to the eastern seaboard of North America. There are strong arguments for investing in research frameworks that can be applied across Europe and, in some cases, farther afield, but how this might be achieved is not easily resolved. We will consider examples of UK World Heritage Site, regional and subject-based frameworks which demonstrate the merits of linking national research agendas, with particular focus on the potential of interactive online frameworks as a methodology for facilitating international collaboration. It is hoped that this will provide useful data for discussion of the merits of a more integrated approach to the development of research frameworks across Europe, and of the methods that would allow us to achieve this ambition.


Author(s): Knight, David (York Archaeological Trust)