Realistic Evaluation - Paperback

by Ray Pawson (Author), Nick Tilley (Author)

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 paradigm s 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.

Author Biography

Ray Pawson is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at Leeds University. He is president of the Committee on Logic and Methodology of the International Sociological Association and the UK Director of the International Forum on the Study of Education in Penal Systems. He is the author of A Measure for Measures: A Manifesto for Empirical Sociology (1989).

Nicholas Tilley is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Crime and Social Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University. He has been a research consultant for the British Home Office since 1992, working with the Police Research Group on the evaluation of crime prevention and policing programmes.