Uses and misuses of evaluation in social policy

Abstract

The Strathprints institutional repository (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk) is a digital archive of University of Strathclyde research outputs. It has been developed to disseminate open access research outputs, expose data about those outputs, and enable the management and persistent access to Strathclyde's intellectual output. Uses and misuses of evaluation in social policy Christopher Deeming We can achieve a sort of control under which the controlled, though they are following a code much more scrupulously than was ever the case under the old system, nevertheless feel free. They are doing what they want to do, not what they are forced to do. That's the source of the tremendous power of positive reinforcementthere's no restraint and no revolt. By careful cultural design, we control not the final behaviour, but the inclination to behavethe motives, desires, the wishes.

Refugee integration policy the Norwegian way – why good ideas fail and bad ideas prevail

“…Other scholars have underlined that evaluations of policy measures in general, and of labour market activation measures in particular, can be both used and misused. They are methodologically challenging, often inconclusive; results are frequently adapted from one context to another; and research programmes and their interpretations are influenced by (politicians') ideological frameworks and assumptions (Deeming, 2017;Dahler-Larsen, 2017). This clearly undermines the role of evaluations both as sources of 'good' ideas and in reducing the uncertainty that policy-makers and their electorate operate under.…”