Simpson, F. A. (2010). The values of community archaeology: a comparative assessment between the UK and US. Oxford, Archaeopresss.
Through evaluating community excavations as 'community archaeology' projects in a range of contexts in the UK and the US, this book explores the question: 'Does community archaeology work?' The author suggests that the motivations for a worldwide boom in community archaeology projects (a broad term including projects run by museums, archaeological units, universities, archaeological societies and developers) include the desire to meet a range of perceived educational and social values of increasing public awareness of the present in the past, as well as the desire to secure funding for archaeological research within the current content of research 'impact'. In response to this recent growth in 'community archaeology', the author argues that appropriate criteria and methodologies for evaluating the effectiveness of community archaeology projects have yet to be designed and sets out such a methodology based on self-reflexivity and ethnology. On the basis of her evaluation of several community excavations in the UK and US, the author concludes that community archaeology suffers from short-term funding and often lacks sustainability, limiting its ability to produce and maintain values for the community, and makes recommendations for designing more sustainable future community archaeology projects.