Overview
- Makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the theory of evaluation
- Connects evaluation practice to neoliberalism and austerity
- Demonstrates that evaluation can make a radical contribution to progressive policy and practice
- Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Science, Knowledge and Policy (SKP)
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Table of contents (5 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book interrogates the role played by evaluation in 21st century governing. Using youth work in the UK as a case study, it challenges the narrative of evidence-based policy-making, arguing instead that evaluation research is used to discipline and control. At the same time, drawing on the work of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, this book argues that evaluation can be reclaimed and facilitate transformation. In bringing these theoretically rich discussions to bear on the domain of contemporary evaluation, the author provokes an alternative reading of the relationship between research and governing, emphasising how knowledge production has historically been manipulated by elites towards their own political ends. As the debate around elite’s use of research expands globally, this book is a nuanced interjection into both established evidence-based policy and emergent narratives of ‘post-truth’. Challenging and provocative, this innovative work will appeal to students and scholars of social and public policy, and governance and public management.
Reviews
“This is a thought provoking and timely book which makes us reflect on how we can use evaluation to facilitate change. Deirdre manages to systematically and stylishly draw on critical sociological perspectives to explore the relationship between knowledge production and governing. The examination of youth work policy context urges academics and practitioners alike to critically explore their own preconceptions, use and potentials of evaluation. This book is not just a theoretically robust, practically astute and an engaging read, but it is a call to action to reclaim, rearticulate and transform how we engage with evaluation.” (Sinéad Gormally, Senior Lecturer in Community Development, University of Glasgow)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Evaluation and Governing in the 21st Century
Book Subtitle: Disciplinary Measures, Transformative Possibilities
Authors: Deirdre Niamh Duffy
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Science, Knowledge and Policy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-54513-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Limited 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-54512-1Published: 16 November 2017
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-54513-8Published: 17 August 2017
Series ISSN: 2947-5805
Series E-ISSN: 2947-5813
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 161
Topics: Sociological Theory, Knowledge - Discourse, Public Policy, Governance and Government, Sociology of Family, Youth and Aging