Understanding the Workplace: A Research Framework for Industrial Archaeology in Britain.

The papers in this volume arose from a conference organised by The Association for Industrial Archaeology (AIA) in Nottingham in June 2004, with the support of English Heritage, which had the explicit intention of formulating a research framework for industrial archaeology in the 21st century. Most have been written by those professionally involved in archaeology, which in itself indicates the massive step forward that industrial archaeology has taken in the last half-century from its beginnings as a largely volunteer movement. The recent designation of British World Heritage Sites such as Blaenavon in South Wales, New Lanark in Scotland, two textile-based sites in England, the Derwent Valley of Derbyshire and Saltaire in West Yorkshire, and most recently Liverpool — Maritime Mercantile City, has emphasised the international importance of Britain's contribution to the processes of industrialisation. For all these sites, the designations have taken account not just of the technological innovations which many of them represent but also the social context of the process of industrialisation, expressed through settlement patterns and material culture. The invited papers at the Nottingham conference were explicitly intended to explore this social agenda, which is of paramount importance in our efforts to examine the process of transition from an agrarian to an industrial society through the archaeological remains of the early modern period. This volume contains the results of that decision and is intended to demonstrate how far industrial archaeology (or whatever we choose to call it) is now a fully recognised element within mainstream archaeology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]