DETERMINANTS OF THE SPANISH
ARCHAEOLOGICAL ACTIVITY:
EVOLUTION AND EFFECTS OF
ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN
Eva Parga-Dans
Institute of Heritage Sciences
(Incipit-CSIC), Spain
RESEARCH CONTEXT
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SPANISH
ARCHAEOLOGICAL
LABOUR MARKET
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Methods
1. Qualitative step. Expert panel, secondary sources, 107 openended interviews, case studies.
2. Quantitative step to collect information about labor market. Survey
(personal interviews with CEO or senior VP) 80% response rate (217
over 273 firms).
Survey Procedure
Stage 1
Telephone contact
Stage 2
Assited questionnaire using an on-line application
Stage 3
Telephone survey
Stage 4
Codifying and processing the information
Stage 5
Production of global frequencies
A database was constructed
Results
Defining the boundaries of Spanish
archaeological sector
5
Research Context
Spain
“Spanish Heritage Historic Law” 1985
3.000 archaeologists (aprox.)
273 firms (2009)
7
A complex sectoral system (I)
- Products (Services):
- Heritage management protection (documentation, intervention,
enhancement). It requires public authorization
- Expert consultancy
- Dissemination activities
8
Spanish Market Developing Process
Number of firms created per year (total number of firms).
Firm Profile
- Labour Market: 2.358 people working in archaeological
companies in 2009
- Small firm size (25% have just one employee)
- Archaeological firms have a highly localized scope (73% of these
organizations work in the region in which they are located).
- Low turnover (38% do not reach 100.000€ per year)
Business trend
Archaeological
industry is a
recent market
activity in Spain
that had
registered a fast
growing process:
273 firms in
2009. However, if
faces mounting
inter-firm
competition due
to economic
slowdown.
DEMAND PROFILE
Main clients, data expressed in percentages
HUMAN CAPITAL
Human capital educational level, data expressed in porcentages
From 2009 to 2013
Discovering the Archaeologists of Europe
Project
14
In 2013: Data Collection
Survey to collect information about Spanish archaeological
labor market:
- Design the questionnaire
- Online application (July-August 2013)
- 233 active firms (over 273 in 2009)
- Survey oriented to other organizations where archaeologists
are working
- Telephone Survey
Survey Procedure
Survey Procedure
Survey Procedure
Preliminary results
Organization
Company
Self employee
Public administration
Museum
Foundation
Total
Nº
106
32
4
1
3
146
Preliminary Results (II)
- Firm size: 57% of organizations has between 1 and 5 employees,
69% of those state that had reduced their size since 2007.
- Turnover:
- 45% do not reach100.000 € per year (38% in 2009)
- 77% state 2012 turnover is lower than 2010-2011
- Main clients are construction sector and public administrations (the
same as in 2009) and general public is becoming more important
Reinvent or Perish Dilemma
- Adaptation initiatives are required if they want survive:
- Diversifying
- Specializing
- Moving towards other cultural activities
- Basic knowledge and technologies. Include different areas:
archaeology, biology, restoration, topography, geo-spatial
technologies, etc.
- Knowledge and learning processes: this is an emergent sector and
the development of techniques and know-how is something new.
- High qualified level. 71% of employees have a degree and of them
16.2% are PhDs.
Conclusions
- Archaeological sector in Spain is an emergent activity that had
registered a fast growing process: 273 firms in 2009.
- However, it faces mounting inter-firm competition due to
economic slowdown and the dependence of the construction
sector.
- High qualified human capital and knowledge-base activity are
the main opportunities in the changing environmental
conditions.
Thank you!