After Modernity Archaeological Approaches to the Contemporary Past [Paperback]

After Modernitysummarizes archaeological approaches to the contemporary past, and suggests a new agenda for the archaeology of late modern societies. The principal focus is the archaeology of developed, de-industrialized societies during the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. This period encompasses the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the 'internet age', a period which sits firmly within what we would recognize to be a period of 'lived and living memory'. Rodney Harrison and John Schofield explore how archaeology can inform the study of this time period and the study of our own society through detailed case studies and an in-depth summary of the existing literature.After Modernitydraws together cross-disciplinary perspectives on contemporary material culture studies, and develops a new agenda for the study of the materiality of late modern societies.

1. Introduction
Part One: Surveying the Field: The Development of an Archaeology of the Recent and Contemporary Past
2. A Disciplinary (Pre)History
3. Field Methods
4. Working Across Disciplines
5. Theory and Politics
Part Two: Archaeological Approaches to Late Modern Societies
6. Artefacts
7. Sites
8. Landscapes
9. Non-Places and Virtual Worlds
10. Conclusions

This is one of those rare books poised from the outset to become a classics. In many ways it is what archaeology is at its best: a creative and scholarly exploration of everyday life. Yet,After Modernityalso offers fascinating explorations of the possibilities of the past in the present, and the contributions archaeologies can make to a range of contemporary social issues. --Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

By bringing archaeology right up to date Harrison and Schofield provide an eloquent argument that the transformation of things and landscapes haunts the contemporary il“„