Possibilism and Evaluation

Foreword - Introduction - Evaluation and development - Interpretive social science: The core of an anthology - Interpretive social science and morality - Hirschman, possibilism and evaluation - Hirschman's production line on projects and programs - Possibilism, change and unintended consequences - Doubt, surprise and the ethical evaluator: Lessons from the work of Judith Tendler - Appendix A Albert Hirschman and the World Bank - Appendix B Remembering Judith - Bibliography - Index of Names - Index of Subjects.

Sociologist Nicoletta Stame (PhD, State University of New York and Catania University) is emerita professor at Sapienza University of Roma, past president of the European Evaluation Society and Associazione Italiana di Valutazione, a member of the editorial board of Evaluation, and vice-president of A Colorni-Hirschman International Institute.

"In her new book, Possibilism and Evaluation: Judith Tendler and Albert Hirschman, Dr. Nicoletta Stame gives us a fresh perspective on Tendler and Hirschman, two provocative thinkers who were unafraid to stand apart in their thinking and practice, and whose scholarship was full of prescient of ideas that are still 'leading edge' in evaluation today. Tendler and Hirschman covered significant territory not only worth remembering, but truly inspiring for us today, and their work beckons evaluators to reflect on questions such as: How can we harness the power of Theory of Change in evaluation to break away from linear logic modeling and capture a flexible perspective that leaves room for ambiguity? How can we be open to see and study what has worked in the face of adversity? How do we represent human creativity in our evaluations? Stame shows connections between this still avant-garde work with evaluation scholars like Rogers, Schwandt and Patton, and with approaches and methods such as mixed methods, qualitative evaluation, Appreciative Evaluation, and others. We are grateful to Stame for bringing into the light the stimulating and robust body of work of Tendler and Hirschman, with their unflinching challenging of norms that still bind evaluators in many quarters today. The complex concept of possibilism in evaluation is an important contribution to evaluation scholarship-evaluation that invites respect of people, ethical practice, and creative insight toward what makes communities resilient and thriving." -Tessie Tzavaras Catsambas, CEO/CFO, EnCompass LLC; Former President, American Evaluation Association