Evaluation as a social practice: Disenchantment, rationalities and ethics

Robert Picciotto

Evaluation and Program Planning, 2021, vol. 87, issue C

Abstract: We live in an age where evaluation is omnipresent. However, as a social practice, it has become hard to distinguish from auditing, inspection, quality assurance and other means of social control. As a result, the evaluation occupation is now widely viewed as intrusive and burdensome – a self-serving commercial enterprise. Yet, evaluation at its creation was conceived (or perhaps imagined) as a vocation devoted to the public good. This article probes the root causes of the spreading disenchantment; puts Weber’s logic of social action to work; and puts his rationalities concepts to work to explore the ethical and professional challenges currently faced by the evaluation community.

Keywords: Bureaucracy; Ethics; Disenchantment; History; Sociology; Rationalities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:epplan:v:87:y:2021:i:c:s0149718921000227

DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.101927

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