El contenido del texto se integra en el proyecto NEARCH (New ways of Engaging audiences, Activating societal relations and Renewing practices in Cultural Heritage), financiado por el programa Culture 2007-2013 de la Comision Europea, en el que Incipit participa junto a otros trece socios de ocho paises europeos, asi como en la Red TRAMA3 (Trabajo en Red para la Accion Multivocal en Arqueologia, Antropologia y Ambiente), financiada por el area de Ciencia y Sociedad del programa iberoamericano CYTED (Ciencia y Tecnologia para el Desarrollo) en la que el Incipit participa junto a otros ocho socios de cinco paises latinoamericanos y Portugal.

Societies today face multiple challenges stemming from the conflict between 'market efficiency' and 'social welfare' that are, in turn, the result of neoliberal policies affecting institutional legitimacy. Complex institutional logics associated with organisational responses are part of the early sociological debate about how organisations cope with established institutionalism in order to maintain legitimacy and survive. By employing an institutional framework and historical event sequencing approach, we aim to understand whether normative pressures can be understood to exert an influence of embeddedness and change. The paper analyses the emergence of Spanish contract archaeology after the 1990s. This new organisational pattern in the field of archaeology was a complex institutionalised process that gave rise to a new labour market. The economic crisis starting in 2008 has impacted this sector severely, to the extent that it is, at the time of writing, on the brink of extinction.

Round table presentation in the 17th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists, 14-18 September, Oslo, Norway.

This article presents the results of the first survey of archaeological companies in Spain. Through these results the first data base about this business has been constructed. Information collected allows developing a descriptive study about this commercial activity; it also includes an approximation to the effects of the current economic crisis and the opportunities of this sector.