![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
Understanding how researchers perceive key research developments in their fields is not straightforward. This paper reports on a project focusing on perceptions of key developments in the adoption of agriculture (Mesolithic-Neolithic transition) in Ireland. The project involved over sixty interviews with active researchers, generating qualitative data that provide an overview of these perceptions. Despite much diversity, several areas emerge as having been particularly important, including methodologies and wider developments in archaeological practice. Variation between Ireland and other areas of north-west Europe is suggested by some aspects of the data.
Acknowledgements
The project was supported by a UCD President's Research Fellowship 2007–8, for which I am very grateful. The Humanities Institute of Ireland provided office facilities and the UCD School of Archaeology support in kind during the year. Further support was provided courtesy of Brian Jackson and the John Hume Global Ireland Institute and the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Primary thanks go to those interviewed formally as part of the project (too many to list individually here) as well as those who contributed through discussions that, for varied reasons, were not included as formal interviews. I would also like to thank Danny Hind for discussion of methodologies for consensus-building exercises. Especial thanks to Gabriel Cooney, Kim Rice, Thomas Kador and two anonymous referees for their comments on drafts of this paper. None of these individuals are responsible for the inevitable errors of fact and judgement contained herein.
UCD School of Archaeology, University College Dublin