Ethics of evaluation for socio-ecological transformation: Case-based critical systems analysis of motivation, power, expertise, and legitimacy

Abstract

Evaluation that supports social, ecological, and governance systems change and transformation raises ethical questions about what and whose worldviews do and should ground evaluative processes. This article illustrates one approach to ethical analysis within a case study of the first phase of an initiative to co-create a monitoring, evaluation, and learning system. The case drew on the principles of Blue Marble Evaluation in partnership with local staff and Indigenous leaders of the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative. The approach uses critical and relational systems thinking to examine the sources of motivation, power, knowledge, and legitimacy that influence and should influence an evaluation system. Results reframe typical early phase evaluation process work from a contractual agreement to a co-created ethical space that engenders the legitimacy of the evaluation process. Contributions include a conceptual framework and process for ethical analysis that could be adapted by others.

9 Dimensions for evaluating how art and creative practice stimulate societal transformations

“…Furthermore, the contexts of creative practices are, more than ever, in flux themselves; it is certainly not a matter of helping to enact transformative change in an otherwise stable world. Complex systems-based evaluation approaches call for the need to take such complex contexts into account in evaluation processes (Barbrook-Johnson et al 2020, Cox and Barbrook-Johnson 2021, Gates et al 2023. Furthermore, there is the political question of whether governing actors understand and prioritize action to support sustainability transformations in the first place, or whether they are just interested in incremental "social impact" that maintains the status quo.…”

‘Kesho’ Scenario Development for Supporting Water-Energy Food Security under Future Conditions in Zanzibar

“…Further to this, multiand trans-disciplinary action requires critical reflections on power distribution and accountabilities [54]. Consequently, reflexivity is needed to surface participants' positionality (including their values and beliefs) and challenge underlying assumptions and power relations [55,56]. This can provide a more accurate and nuanced understanding of the impacts of actions undertaken and avoid a culture of silence where fundamental issues remain unresolved [57].…”

Conserving the Sacred: Socially Innovative Efforts in the Loita Enaimina Enkiyio Forest in Kenya

“…The study of social-ecological systems takes different dimensions, varying from stewardship, resilience assessment, adaptive governance, transformations, regime shifts, and ecosystem services [16,[23][24][25][26]42]. Ostrom developed the social-ecological systems framework [43], describing them as complex adaptive systems in which humans are embedded in nature.…”

“…The social-ecological system framework and Social Innovation theories in studying the sacred. Source; Absolon, 2020; Buttimer, 2006; Das et al, 2022; Gates et al, 2022; Genin and Simenel, 2011; Jackson and Henrie, 2009; Moran and Ostrom, 2005; Moulaert et al, 2013; Ornetsmüller et al, 2016; Ostrom, 2009; Parra and Moulaert, 2011; Rutte, 2011; Van den Broeck et al, 2019b; Verschuuren et al, 2012; Vos et al, 2021; Yanda et al, 2019)[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]…”