Books in the Evaluation and Society series

Explains the steps of Outcome Harvesting and how to customize them according to the nine underlying principles. The author shares his experience and gives practical advice on how to work with Outcome Harvesting and remain true to its essential features.

Addresses a fundamental and highly debated issue in the evaluation field - the use of evaluation information for decision-making. Contributors explore a wide range of issues related to the theoretical and practical challenges of using evaluation information to make informed, evidence-based decisions.

Situates the work of Professor J. Bradley Cousins within contemporary areas of evaluation research and practice. Each chapter describes how the study and practice of evaluation has weaved its way through our understanding of organisational learning, participatory evaluation, and evaluation capacity building.

Reframes how we think about evaluation by reconsidering three key concepts of values, biases, and practical wisdom. The first part of the book reconstructs core evaluation concepts, with a focus on the origins of our values and biases. The second part explores how we handle values and biases in practice, and the third shows how we learn practical wisdom and use it in evaluations.

The authors in this volume challenge the field of evaluation to become more concerned about using evaluation to develop more equitable organisations, governments, and societies. Leading evaluation theorists and practitioners provide a range of visions for how evaluation can play a much larger role in facilitating social justice across the globe.

Rather than teach a methodology or propose a model, this book helps you to think methodologically - to solve methodological, political, emotional issues as they arise, using your own judgment and your own resources. There are no blueprints for dealing with the ethics and the politics of evaluative research, there is only your ability to manage complexity and unpredictability.

Set in South Africa, this book affords an in-depth journey that immerses a reader into the realities of evaluation and its relation to democracy. The book starts with the broader introductory chapters that set the scene for more detailed ones which bring thorough insights into national government, local government, and civil societies' experience of democratic evaluation.