Professional Evaluation: Social Impact and Political Consequences

Why do we have evaluation? Is evaluation a discipline? How much impact does evaluation have on government, education or politics? Can social problems, such as poverty, be solved by the application of resources and intelligence? By exploring how evaluation has evolved as a discipline, science and profession, Ernest R House assesses the impact of evaluation on modern societies and the issues that this impact raises for evaluators. Issues addressed include: pluralism versus managerialism; quantitative versus qualitative methodologies; the purpose of education for knowledge production versus education for professions; and clientism and multicultural concerns.