A critical realist approach to systems thinking in evaluation. (January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: De Souza, Denise E.
• Is Part Of: Evaluation. Volume 28:Number 1(2022)
• Page Start: 72
• Page End: 90
• Publication Date: 2022-01
• Subjects: causation -- critical realism -- generative mechanisms -- realist evaluation and synthesis -- realist social theory -- systems thinking; Evaluation research (Social action programs) -- Periodicals; 361.61068
• DOI: 10.1177/13563890211064639
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1356-3890

Abstract

Pawson and Tilley's acknowledgment of programs embedded in multiple social systems has gained little traction in realist synthesis and evaluation practice. A practice focusing on fairly closed systems—explaining how programs work and do not work—has emerged. This article negotiates the boundaries of knowledge pertinent to have in program design and evaluation from a realist perspective. It highlights critical realism as another possible response to systems thinking in evaluation. Moving one level up a program, it theorizes about social structures, mechanisms, and causes operating in a complex system within which an education-to-work program is nested. Three implications of the approach are highlighted: it foregrounds the relational nature of social, psychological, and programmatic structures and mechanisms; enables policymakers to develop a broader understanding of structures needed to support a program; and enables program architects to ascertain how a planned program might assimilate and adapt to social structures and mechanisms already established in a context.