Digging the Crowd: the future for archaeology in the digital and collaborative economy

This thesis draws together a collection of peer-review papers and nonspecialist articles published over the course of the authors enrolment on the PhD in ‘Museum, Gallery and Heritage Practice’ at the University of Leicester School of Museum Studies.

Collectively these papers propose a platform or peer-to-peer approach to archaeological work – a collaborative method of working with citizens, businesses, organisations, and government that creates research ‘with’ people, not ‘for’ them. Variously described as crowdsourcing, citizen science, collective intelligence, and the collaborative or share economy, the thesis will describe how a range of digital tools can be used to harness the crowd’s passion for archaeology, helping to fund, identify, dig, record, and research sites.

Addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by technologyenabled participation – financial, political, ethical and methodological – this research is the first investigation of its type to assess the implications of a networked peer-to-peer approach for archaeology. The term Social Impact Archaeology has been coined to describe this digitally-enabled model of public participation. This definition is mobilised through severalempirical studies drawing on quantitative and qualitative analysis of peer participants, arguing that a crowd-based model can create mutually beneficial outcomes – for both archaeological research and instrumental outcomes for participants and communities.

The Digging the Crowd project has built incrementally over the course of a six-year enrolment, leading to the completion of six peer review papers drawing on empirical evidence from six substantial field projects, nine conference presentations, three non-specialist professional publications, a practice report and the production of a feature length documentary. The thesis draws all these previously published outputs together, alongside additional chapters situating the research context and overall knowledge contribution of the project. It concludes by assessing the wider applicability of this, and whether a crowdfunded and sourced model of archaeology represents a coherent alternative or complimentary practice.