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Evaluation researchers are tasked with providing the evidence to
guide programme building and to assess its outcomes. As such, they
labour under the highest expectations - bringing independence and
objectivity to policy making. They face huge challenges, given the
complexity of modern interventions and the politicised backdrop to
all of their investigations. They have responded with a huge
portfolio of research techniques and, through their professional
associations, have set up schemes to establish standards for
evaluative inquiry and to accredit evaluation practitioners. A big
question remains. Has this monumental effort produced a
progressive, cumulative and authoritative body of knowledge that we
might think of as evaluation science? This is the question
addressed by Ray Pawson in this sequel to "Realistic Evaluation"
and "Evidence-based Policy." In answer, he provides a detailed
blueprint for an evaluation science based on realist principles.
Authors Ray Pawson and Nick Tilley show how program evaluation needs to be and can be bettered. The authors present a profound and highly readable critique of current evaluation practice introducing a manifesto- and handbook-fresh approach. This volume is devoted to articulating a new evaluation paradigm, which promises greater validity and utility for evaluation as a whole. Realistic Evaluation reflects the paradigmÆs foundation in scientific realist philosophy and its commitment to the idea that programs deal with real problems rather than mere social constructions. Its primary intention is to inform realistic developments in policyùmaking that benefit program participants and the public. Pawson and Tilley argue persuasively and passionately that scientific evaluation requires a careful blend of theory and method, quality and quantity, ambition and realism. The book offers a complete blueprint for evaluation activities, covering design to data collection and analysis to the accumulation of findings across programs and onto the realization of research into policy. Practical examples are used throughout this powerful volume and are grounded in the major fields of program evaluation. Realistic Evaluation is essential reading for all those involved in the evaluation process, especially researchers, scholars, and students in sociology, social policy, criminology, health, and education.
Realistic Evaluation shows how program evaluation needs to be, and
can be bettered. It presents a profound yet highly readable
critique of current evaluation practice, and goes on to introduce a
`manifesto' and `handbook' for a fresh approach. The main body of
this book is devoted to the articulation of a new evaluation
paradigm, which promises greater validity and utility from the
findings of evaluation studies. The authors call this new approach
`realistic evaluation'. The name reflects the paradigm's foundation
in scientific realist philosophy, its commitment to the idea that
programmes deal with real problems rather than mere social
constructions, and its primary intention, which is to inform
realistic developments in policy making that benefit programme
participants and the public. Ray Pawson and Nicholas Tilley argue
with passion that scientific evaluation requires a careful blend of
theory and method, quality and quantity, ambition and realism. The
book offers a complete blueprint for evaluation activities, running
from design to data collection and analysis to the cumulation of
findings across programmes and onto the realization of research
into policy. The argument is developed using practical examples
throughout and is grounded in the major fields of programme
evaluation. This book will be essential reading for all those
involved in the evaluation process especially those researchers,
students and practitioners in the core disciplines of sociology,
social policy, criminology, health and education. `This book is a
must for those engaged in the field, providing a fully illustrated
text on evaluation with numerous examples from the criminal justice
system. Unusually, it offers something for the academic,
practitioner and student alike. I found Pawson and Tilley's latest
work on evaluation an enjoyable and informative read. For myself
their "realistic evaluation" clarified and formalised a jumbled set
of ideas I had already been developing. Although not everyone will
agree with the methodology proposed by the authors, this book is a
valuable read as it will cause most of us at least to review our
methodological stance' - International Journal of Police Science
and Management `This is an engaging book with a strong sense of
voice and communicative task. The voice is sometimes strident, but
always clear. Its communicative qualities are evident equally in
its structure: lots of signposting for the reader within and across
chapters' - Language Teaching Research `This provocative, elegant
and highly insightful book focuses on the effective incorporation
of actual practice into the formulation of evaluation methodology.
What a pleasure to read sentences like: "The research act involves
"learning" a stakeholder's theories, formalizing them, and
"teaching" them back to that informant who is then in a position to
comment upon, clarify and further refine the key ideas". Pawson and
Tilley have given us a wise, witty and persuasive account of how
real practitioner experience might be encouraged to intrude on (and
modify) researchers' concepts about program processes and outcomes.
This holds important promise for achieving something that is
devoutly to be wished: closer interaction among at least some
researchers and some policy makers' - Eleanor Chelimsky,
Past-President of the American Evaluation Association `This is a
sustained methodological argument by two wordly-wise social
scientists. Unashamedly intellectual, theoretically ambitious yet
with a clear but bounded conception of evaluation. It is
articulate, occasionally eloquent and always iconoclastic, whilst
eschewing "paradigm wars". The Pawson and Tilley "realist" call to
arms threatens to take no prisoners among experimentalists,
constructivists or pluralists. It is the kind of book that
clarifies your thoughts, even when you disagree with everything
they say' - Elliot Stern, The Tavistock Institute
In this important new book, Ray Pawson examines the recent spread
of evidence-based policy making across the Western world. Few major
public initiatives are mounted these days in the absence of a
sustained attempt to evaluate them. Programmes are tried, tried and
tried again and researched, researched and researched again. And
yet it is often difficult to know which interventions, and which
inquiries, will withstand the test of time. The evident solution,
going by the name of evidence-based policy, is to take the longer
view. Rather than relying on one-off studies, it is wiser to look
to the 'weight of evidence'. Accordingly, it is now widely agreed
the most useful data to support policy decisions will be culled
from systematic reviews of all the existing research in particular
policy domains. This is the consensual starting point for Ray
Pawson's latest foray into the world of evaluative research. But
this is social science after all and harmony prevails only in the
first chapter. Thereafter, Pawson presents a devastating critique
of the dominant approach to systematic review - namely the
'meta-analytic' approach as sponsored by the Cochrane and Campbell
collaborations. In its place is commended an approach that he terms
'realist synthesis'. On this vision, the real purpose of systematic
review is better to understand programme theory, so that policies
can be properly targeted and developed to counter an ever-changing
landscape of social problems. The book will be essential reading
for all those who loved (or loathed) the arguments developed in
Realistic Evaluation (Sage, 1997). It offers a complete blueprint
for research synthesis, supported by detailed illustrations and
worked examples from across the policy waterfront. It will be of
especial interest to policy-makers, practitioners, researchers and
students working in health, education, employment, social care,
criminal justice, regeneration and welfare.
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