For the last several decades and recently amidst the COVID‐19 pandemic, many in the global evaluation communities call for shifts from linear, reductionist ways of thinking and working to approaches that embrace systems and complexity. In this introductory chapter, we orient readers to key systems and complexity traditions and terms and how these have been put to use in the evaluation field. Doing so provides a foundation from which to engage with the subsequent chapters. We close this chapter with highlights from the case examples featured in this issue.
With the increasing maturity of systems thinking and complexity science (STCS) within evaluation, this issue of NDE provides case examples of contemporary application. This article identifies themes across case examples to identify emergent patterns and opportunities for the continued development of evaluation practices that draw upon STCS. Each article describes STCS and its applications within specific evaluation contexts. Our review across cases identified three themes:(1) the importance of setting boundaries around what is included and excluded from within the STCS field in a specific evaluation; (2) using STCS concepts and theories to enhance program and evaluation theory, and (3) broadly drawing upon STCS to support changes in systems and develop capacity within organizations. While these implications show some promise for systems and complexity informed evaluation, they, more importantly, underscore the need for deeper engagement with STCS theories and methods while simultaneously remaining accessible for evaluators.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
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