With apologies for cross-posting ...
This is an invitation to all interested people to join a new listserv
set up for the topic "Systems in Evaluation." The listserv was created
in response to an expression of interest in forming a TIG from several
people who attended the recent AEA session entitled "System Behavior in
the Programs we Evaluate: Implications for Theory, Measurement, and
Methodology."
To sign up, go to http://evaluation.wmich.edu/archives/index.html,
choose EVAL-SYS, then Join or leave the list. Just follow the
instructions from there. To post to the list, send an e-mail to
EVAL-SYS who-is-at LISTS.EVALUATION.WMICH.EDU. If you have any problems, please
contact the list owner (Jane.Davidson@wmich.edu).
The purpose of the listserv (and possible TIG) is to introduce and
develop systems perspectives in the theory building, logic modeling,
data collection, design, and reporting activities that constitute the
field of Evaluation. Existing evaluation approaches have proved
extremely powerful in explicating how programs work, what impact they
have, and why the work as they do. However, existing techniques are
beginning to reveal the limits of their applicability.
The problem is that most evaluation assumes a predominantly linear and
deterministic view of program dynamics. These assumptions reflect only a
shadow of the complexity that actually governs how programs operate in
the messy real world. Evaluation seems to make the implicit assumption
that if only evaluators were clever enough, and if only the right
interdisciplinary teams were constituted, adequate models could be built
and satisfactory evaluations could be executed. The problem is that
practical reasons do not fully explain why evaluation fails to satisfy.
Rather, their major limitation is theoretical. Simply put, the world
does not behave in linear and deterministic ways. Systems-based theories
and methods offer evaluators perspectives that escape the linear and the
deterministic.
In reality, there is no such thing as a "systems" methodology. "Systems"
is a catch all for a wide variety of inquiries, ranging from a
collection of heuristics by which analysts can untangle an
organization's Gordian knot of alliances, coalitions, boundaries, reward
systems, and stakeholders; to formal mathematical treatments of topics
such as "emergence", "chaos", "feedback" and "signal decay". The Systems
in Evaluation listserv brings together advocates of all these
perspectives with evaluation practitioners and theoreticians. The
purpose is to facilitate a dialogue that will cross disciplinary
boundaries, and improve the field's capacity to do more powerful, and
more useful, evaluation.
Please feel free to pass this on to any colleagues who have an interest
in Systems in Evaluation.
-- BOB WILLIAMS bobwill@actrix.co.nz Check out the free resources on my WEB site http://users.actrix.co.nz/bobwillMobile (64) 21 254 8983
Rule #1 - Don't panic Rule #2 - Things always work out in the end
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