Evaluative Research. Principles and Practice in Public Service & Social Action Programs

Suchman, Edward A.:

Published by Russell Sage Foundation, New York, 1970

About this Item

Sprache: Deutsch Leineneinband 8;; 186 Seiten; Bibliotheksstempel auf Rückseite Haupttitel, sonst wohlerhaltenes Buch; Diagramme; - In these days of large government programs intended to reduce poverty, develop communities, prevent delinquency and crime, control disease, and reconstruct cities, the predominant rhetoric is that of planning, pilot projects, experimental and demonstration programs and evaluation. Those who seek to select for support the more promising plans and projects submitted to funding agencies have become habituated to the ritualistic inclusion in the proposal of a final section on Evaluation. In most cases this section consists of sometimes grandiose but usually vague statements of intent and procedure for assessing the impact of the proposed action. In some cases there is an elegant, highly academic, and impractical scheme worked out in meticulous detail by an obviously talented research consultant. In a few treasured instances there is a well-considered, realistic, and workmanlike plan for getting some fairly reliable answers to the questions of what worked and why. Out of all this one gets the impression that what passes for evaluative research is indeed a mixed bag at best and chaos at worst. There are many reasons for this sad state and most of them, strange to say, are nonpejorative, as the present volume makes quite clear. In any case, one reads this book with a sigh of relief and a surge of reviving confidence. So far as this writer is aware, it is the clearest and most comprehensive analysis of the problems and potentialities of evaluative research presently available in the literature. Dr. Suchman has distilled in this volume a rich and varied research experience, much of it concerned with difficult evaluative problems. While his work in recent years has been in sociological research applied to the problems of public health and education, he has made significant contributions as a research sociologist in many other fields such as consumer behavior, mass communication and public opinion, milit.

Seller Inventory # 1038596AB

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Evaluative Research. Principles and Practice in Public Service & Social Action Programs
• Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation, New York
• Publication Date: 1970
• Binding: Hardcover
• Seller catalogs:
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