Evaluation has become a central tool in the development of contemporary social policy. Its widespread popularity is based on the need to provide evidence of the effectiveness of policies and programmes. This book sees evaluation as an inherently political activity, as much about forms of governance as scientific practice. Using a wide range of examples from neighbourhood renewal, health and social care and other aspects of social policy, it relates practical issues in evaluation design to their political contexts. With contributions from leading academics and evaluation practitioners, the book considers key issues in the politics of evaluation including: governance and evaluation; participatory evaluation; partnerships and evaluation; and learning from evaluation. The politics of evaluation is important reading for academics, social researchers, policy makers, service providers and professionals across the public services as well as professional evaluators. It will be a valuable resource for students on a range of social science and professional courses and those concerned with recent developments in social research methodology.

About the Author
David Taylor is Head of the School of Applied Social Science at the University of Brighton. He is Editor of the collection Breaking down barriers: Reviewing partnership practice (HSPRC, 2001) and is a member of the Editorial Collective of the journal Critical Social Policy. Susan Balloch is Professor of Health and Social Care and Director of the Health and Social Policy Research Centre at the University of Brighton. She is co-author of Social services: Working under pressure (1999) and Partnership working: Policy and practice (2001), also published by The Policy Press.

Reviews
"I never thought I would find myself describing a book on evaluation as exciting, but this one is. I recommend it to anyone leading or evaluating projects." The British Journal of Healthcare Computing & Information Management
" ... this collection provides a wide range of interesting cases of evaluations and evaluators trying to deal with the complexities of practice in a very turbulent policy environment." Journal of Social Policy
"This book will provide students (undergraduate and postgraduate) and academic researchers with a useful and interesting entree into the political and practical aspects of policy programme evaluation. The overall appeal of the book lies in the breadth of policy arenas covered, the experiences and insights gleaned from an eclectic mix of real life case studies, its logical structure and clean and clear written style." Policy World "...a book which sets out to examine the politics of evaluation is very timely. ... For those working in areas related to urban studies, this book covers some important issues of urban policy and regeneration." Urban Studies "... the contributors to this volume, all of whome have seen hard service in the vast and lucrative army of academic evaluators in Blairite England, tell their battle stoires in this volume ... Useful? Yes." British Journal of Sociology



Book Information
ISBN 9781861346056
Author David Taylor
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint Policy Press
Publisher Bristol University Press