This volume assembles some of the contributions to the first two annual meetings of the Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory ('CHAT') conferences, held at Bristol University in November 2003 and Leicester University in November 2004. Bringing together a wide range of archaeological practitioners from higher education and from professional archaeology, these contributions explore the potential of archaeological studies of the recent and contemporary past from a range of perspectives.Included are studies that focus on a range of themes, and whilst diverse they are united by an awareness of archaeology as a contemporary practice, and of the radical potential for the extension of archaeological perspectives into the recent past and the contemporary world.