Landscape archaeology, heritage and the community in Devon: An oral history approach

Abstract

In the context of recent media, governmental, academic and popular attention and enthusiasm for debates surrounding the construction and meaning of the British countryside, this paper outlines the potential for oral history to make a contribution. Working in Devon, the authors outline how an oral history methodology can engage with the fields of landscape archaeology and heritage studies. As well as augmenting and supporting more traditional approaches to landscape, oral history techniques can be used to challenge and destabilise existing knowledge, thereby moving the process of 'democratisation' in knowledge construction of the rural landscape from practices of scientific 'complicity' towards one of critical engagement.