Search

This paper identifies trends in development evaluation that emerged during the last decade, such as the use of randomized control trials, the renewed emphasis on complexity, the creation of national, regional and global evaluation networks and associations, the increasing diffusion of ICTs in monitoring and evaluation practice and the interest in using evaluation to inform scaling-up decisions. The paper considers opportunities and risks associated with these trends, proposing ways to deal with them, including a key role for knowledge management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent times, sustainable development in the management of natural and cultural heritage has been a topic of growing interest. Numerous documents highlight the important role of heritage in processes towards sustainability. However, the articulation between sustainability and heritage is relatively incipient as recent is this notion of development in the heritage agenda. This paper seeks to outline a set of legal-political sustainability indicators for the management of assets that have become part of Argentina's heritage and that involved more than one jurisdiction along the process. Legal-political sustainability emphasizes the actors' freedom, entailing the incorporation of diverse perspectives, the ability to express themselves and make decisions, in a context of strengthening democratic processes. Based on previous studies that selected and built indicators applicable to cultural and natural heritage and the review of two cases, four categories are defined. Each one includes indicators that can be evaluated from a qualitative-quantitative approach. The research provides a methodological instrument to assess the efficiency of heritage management, particularly when they involve more than one jurisdiction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When examining various evaluation prescriptive theories comparatively, we find it helpful to have a frame-work showing how they are related that highlights features that distinguish theoretical perspectives, thus a «theory» about theories. The evaluation theory tree that we presented in Alkin's recent book, Evaluation Roots [Eisner, E. (2004). The roots of connoisseurship and criticism: A personal journey. In M. Alkin (Ed.), Evaluation roots: Tracing theorists' views and influences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Guba, E., & Lincoln, Y., (2004). The roots of fourth generation evaluation: Theoretical and methodological origins. In M. Alkin (Ed.), Evaluation roots: Tracing theorists' views and influences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Stake, R. (2004). Stake and responsive evaluation. In M. Alkin (Ed.), Evaluation roots: Tracing theorists' views and influences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; Wholey, J. S. (2004). Using evaluation to improve performance and support policy decision making. In M. Alkin (Ed.), Evaluation roots: Tracing theorists' views and influences. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage], is such a framework. Just as theorists modify their views over time, in this paper we suggest modifications to the theory tree presented in the Roots book, including a repositioning of a few theorists, the addition of theorists, and a reconceptualization of the valuing branch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]