An attempt to nuance the understanding of professional reports in archaeology

Professional (i.e. extra-academic) contract archaeology is an internationally widespread practice contributing significantly to the archaeological literature. However, professional knowledge production in archaeology, and most notably the professional report genre, is at times described as problematic. The problem descriptions are ambiguous and can be grouped under at least three different topics: concerns for content quality and practical accessibility, concerns for the comparably low degree of analytical and theoretical synthesizing in reports and concerns for lack of mutual knowledge transfer between academic archaeologists and professional archaeologists. Technical issues of access are to an increasing extent being solved. Format standardizations are also developing. Hence the report genre becomes more accessible, and the content more readable and informative. Yet articulations of attitudes toward the genre in archaeology text books and journal articles remain focused on the genre’s problems. The aim of my ongoing dissertation research is to nuance the understanding of the professional report genre in archaeology. I do so by analyzing factors shaping reporting as it takes place in the intersection between academic norms, professional values and market logics. I argue an improved genre understanding is crucial to diminish cultural issues of access to the report literature, and also as a basis for development of reporting practices. In1the dissertation research I analyze (1) perceptions about the report genre in archaeology literature, (2) information policy regulating reporting in archaeology, (3) how report writers and county board professionals interpret the reporting and report auditing work tasks and (4) the frames of reference report writers bring into reporting. The aim of this paper is to explicate the research design consisting of four sub-studies, to briefly report on findings from study no. 4, and to discuss preliminary, partial results from study no. 2.ARKDI