Suchergebnisse

Chapter 1 Evaluation: For Public Good or Professional Power? -- part Section I: -- chapter 2 Policy and Evaluation: Many Powers, Many Truths -- chapter 3 Sharing Power among Evaluation Players: Mission Possible? -- chapter 4 Taking One's Own Medicine? The Self-Evaluation of the Danish Evaluation Institute -- part Section II: Game Frontiers: Political and Administrative Players -- chapter 5 PART: Program Assessment or Power Grab? -- chapter 6 Co-Ordination of Social Policies at the EU Level: An Ambiguous Relationship between Evaluation and Politics -- chapter 7 The Power of Illusion: Evaluative Information and Political Steering in Valais -- chapter 8 Peer Evaluation{u2014}The Powerful Peer? -- part Section III: To Have and to Hold. Power -- chapter 9 Using Their Discretion: How State Audit Institutions Determine Which Performance Audits to Undertake -- chapter 10 Power Asymmetries and Performance Audits: The Canadian Human Rights Commission and the Auditor General of Canada.

Cover; Half Title; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; 1 Introduction; I Changed Perspectives on Evaluation in Turbulent Times; 2 Quiet Past and Stormy Present: The Challenges for Evaluation; 3 Development Evaluation in an Age of Turbulence; 4 Unknowns and Ex Ante Evaluation: The Case for Scenario-Based Approaches; II Economic Turbulences and Evaluation; 5 Embracing Evaluation in Turbulent Economic and Fiscal Times; 6 Shifting Economic Paradigms: Can Evaluation Help Solve the European Dilemma of Public Spending?

Today, evaluation is part of governing systems and is supported by powerful institutions. It is taken for granted that evaluation leads to betterment. However, evaluation itself is seldom analyzed from a critical perspective. In this book, Jan-Eric Furubo and Nicoletta Stame have assembled an international line-up of distinguished experts and emerging scholars to fill this void.? Examining evaluation from a critical? or evaluative? perspective, each contribution in this book offers a systematic and critical insight into the broader relationship between evaluationand society. Divided into three parts, the various chapters ask questions such as: Has the professionalization of evaluators favored their action in the public interest?? Is the money spent on evaluation worth it?? Is the market of evaluation allowing real competition for the best services?? The answers to these questions demonstrate that the constitutive effects of the social practice of evaluation can also be the suppression of other forms of knowledge and the favoring of certain notions about societal development and political and administrative processes. What are the consequences of the institutionalization of evaluation?

Increasingly, in the world of evaluation, `systems of evaluation' have been developed.This article outlines four criteria that help characterize such systems. One criterion is the existence of a distinctive epistemological perspective; another is that, in order to be labelled a system, evaluation activities are carried out by evaluators within organizational structures and institutions and not only (or largely) by `lonely' or sole-trader evaluators. Permanence is the third criterion and the fourth is that there is a focus on the intended use of results of evaluations. Examples of systems are the performance-monitoring system, the `experimentalist' system and the evaluation-accreditation system. Several problematic aspects of these systems are described, making it relevant to study them. One of these is the danger that evaluation systems breed (new) evaluation systems.Another problem is that these systems may produce largely routinized information relevant for day-to-day practices and single-loop learning processes, but which is of little relevance for fundamental reassessments of policies and programmes.

Today, evaluation is part of governing systems and is supported by powerful institutions. It is taken for granted that evaluation leads to betterment. However, evaluation itself is seldom analyzed from a critical perspective. In this book, Jan-Eric Furubo and Nicoletta Stame have assembled an international line-up of distinguished experts and emerging scholars to fill this void.? Examining evaluation from a critical – or evaluative – perspective, each contribution in this book offers a systematic and critical insight into the broader relationship between evaluationand society. Divided into three parts, the various chapters ask questions such as: Has the professionalization of evaluators favored their action in the public interest?? Is the money spent on evaluation worth it?? Is the market of evaluation allowing real competition for the best services?? The answers to these questions demonstrate that the constitutive effects of the social practice of evaluation can also be the suppression of other forms of knowledge and the favoring of certain notions about societal development and political and administrative processes.What are the consequences of the institutionalization of evaluation?.

Today most social and political observers would have difficulty imagining a society where evaluation is not a fixture of daily life, from individual programs to local authorities to parliamentary committees. While university researchers, grant makers, and public servants may think there are too many types of evaluation, rankings, and reviews, evaluation is nonetheless viewed positively by the public. It is perceived as a tool for improvement and evaluators are seen as dedicated to using their knowledge for the benefit of society. The book examines the degree to which evaluators seek power for

This text provides a comparative cross-country analysis of evaluation culture and the institutionalization of evaluation. The countries included in this research are the 19 OECD countries examined by the authors of the International Atlas of Evaluation 10 years ago (Furubo et al., 2002). The analysis is based on the results of an expert survey of four to five evaluation experts from different backgrounds for each country, as well as additional information from the literature. Using the nine indicators from Furubo et al. (2002) with a focus on the institutional characteristics of reforms, trends in evaluation culture over the last decade have been identified.

"Now more than ever, policy evaluation is an important component in addressing the world's economic crisis. Before it can do so, the discipline must adapt to changing economic and political environments. The contributors address a basic question: What impact do crises have on evaluation and how can evaluation contribute in times of turbulence? Examining the state of evaluation today, the volume's editors cover a broad range of topics, including post-hoc evaluation; shifting economic paradigms; the World Bank Group's response to the global economic crisis; challenges in evaluating financial literacy; evaluating counter-terrorism programs; evaluation in the context of humanitarian crises; and why civil society organizations in sub-Saharan Africa matter in evaluating poverty interventions. The contributors explore the role of evaluation in the search for solutions to global instability. They recognize, however, that in order to address unprecedented crises, evaluation itself needs to be evaluated and updated as part of the process of change and reform." --

Evaluation has come of age. Today most social and political observers would have difficulty imagining a society where evaluation is not a fixture of daily life, from individual programs to local authorities to parliamentary committees. While university researchers, grant makers, and public servants may think there are too many types of evaluation, rankings and reviews, evaluation is nonetheless viewed positively by the public. It is perceived as a tool for improvement and evaluators are seen as dedicated to using their knowledge for the benefit of society.