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The Unethical Enterprise of the Past: Lessons from the Collapse of Archaeological Heritage Management in Spain

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Abstract

This paper explores the underlying factors behind the collapse of commercial archaeology in Spain, with implications for other international contexts. It contributes to the current global debate about heritage ethics, adding nuance and conceptual depth to critical management studies and cultural heritage management in their approach to business ethics. Similar to other European contexts, Spanish archaeological management thrived during the 1990s and 2000s as a business model based on policies directed at safeguarding cultural heritage. The model had controversial ethical implications at academic, policy and business levels. However, the global financial crisis of 2008 had a huge impact on this sector, and more than 70% of the Spanish archaeological companies closed by 2017. Drawing on the concepts of abstract narratives, functional stupidity and corporatist neoliberalism, this paper illustrates the need to examine ethical issues from a pragmatic standpoint, beyond epistemological and moralistic critiques of profit-oriented businesses in the cultural realm. In doing so, it connects the fields of cultural heritage and management studies, opening up hitherto unexplored strands of research and debate.

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Funding

This work was supported by Project ID 2013-1126/001-001: “New ways of Engaging audiences, Activating societal relations and Renewing practices in Cultural Heritage (NEARCH)” European Commission—Culture Programme (2013–2018). This research was supported by funds from The Institute of Hertitage Sciences and the Spanish national research project CSO2017-85188-R: La construcción social de la calidad alimentaria: Mediaciones entre la producción y el consume de una economía basada en el conocimiento. The authors thank the individuals that took part in this study and the collaborating institutions. This manuscript has been edited by Guido Jones, currently funded by the Cabildo de Tenerife, under the TFinnova Programme supported by MEDI and FDCAN funds.

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  1. Instituto de Productos Naturales y Agrobiología (IPNA-CSIC), Av. Astrofisico Francisco Sánchez, 3, 38206, San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

    Eva Parga Dans & Pablo Alonso González

  2. CICS.NOVA, Avenida de Berna, 26-C, 1069-061, Lisbon, Portugal

    Eva Parga Dans

  3. Institute of Heritage Sciences (Incipit-CSIC), Avda. de Vigo s/n, 15705, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Pablo Alonso González

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  1. Eva Parga Dans
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Correspondence to Eva Parga Dans.

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Parga Dans, E., Alonso González, P. The Unethical Enterprise of the Past: Lessons from the Collapse of Archaeological Heritage Management in Spain. J Bus Ethics 172, 447–461 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04504-6

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