Possibilism and Evaluation

The book aims at showing both the relevance of practical work for the advancement of social theory, and the need for a theoretical attitude - based on a capacity of being surprised - for the strengthening of democratic professionalism and the attainment of sound results.

Albert Hirschman affirmed that "Judith Tendler's fine insights into the differential characteristics and side-effects of thermal and hydropower, and of generation and distribution, contributed in many ways to the formation of my views." Judith Tendler, in turn, wrote that Hirschman had taught her "to look where I never would have looked before for insight into a country's development," and that in Albert's work a researcher who was "patient enough" would find "a rich complexity of both success and failure, efficiency alongside incompetence, order cohabiting with disorder." Reconstructing the theoretical roots of interpretive social science, this text shows how Hirschman's possibilism lies at the base of the original way Tendler practiced evaluation and anticipated many current developments. The continuing vitality of their thought enables us to trace the outlines of possibilist evaluation.

Autorentext

Sociologist Nicoletta Stame (PhD, State University of New York and Catania University) is emerita professor at Sapienza University of Roma, past president of the European Evaluation Society and Associazione Italiana di Valutazione, a member of the editorial board of Evaluation, and vice-president of A Colorni-Hirschman International Institute.

Klappentext

Albert Hirschman's possibilism originated from his work on development and democracy; at the same time, it offered tools for evaluating projects that Judith Tendler innovatively utilized in her professional work, where she interweaved theory and practice, methodology and ethics . Starting from observation in the field, comparisons, linkages, inverted sequences and unexpected consequences are really key elements in a type of evaluation that works toward improvement, "for a better world."

The enduring vitality of the thinking of these forerunners is what motivates the reconstruction of their intellectual trajectories: from the way of learning from the successes and failures of programs, to how to deal with such themes as complexity, mechanisms, uncertainty, change, that are at the core of current debates.

The book aims at showing both the relevance of practical work for the advancement of social theory, and the need for a theoretical attitude - based on a capacity of being surprised - for the strengthening of democratic professionalism and the attainment of sound results. It will constitute a basic reading for social scientists, decision-makers, policy implementers, evaluators and students.

Inhalt

Foreword - Introduction - Evaluation and development - Interpretive social science: The core of an anthology - Interpretive social science and morality - Hirschman, possibilism and evaluation - Hirschman's production line on projects and programs - Possibilism, change and unintended consequences - Doubt, surprise and the ethical evaluator: Lessons from the work of Judith Tendler - Appendix A Albert Hirschman and the World Bank - Appendix B Remembering Judith - Bibliography - Index of Names - Index of Subjects.