Pawson and Nick Tilley 20041

Contents: Introduction 1. The nature of programmes and how they work 2. Basic concepts in the explanation and understanding of programmes 3. Strategies and methods of realist evaluation 4. Realism's place in the policy cycle: formative, summative and synthetic approaches 5. The nature, presentation and use of findings from realist evaluation 6. Conclusion: strengths, limitations and relationships with other approaches Appendix I – 'Thinking it through': an exercise in realist hypothesis making. Appendix II – 'Varieties of realist evaluation': pocket illustrations of quantitative, qualitative, formative and synthetic applications. Appendix III – 'Would it work here?': a grid to help decide on the feasibility of mounting a programme 'on your patch'. References Introduction Realist evaluation is a species of theory-driven evaluation. Some of the differences between it and fellow members of the genus (programme theory evaluation, theories-of-change evaluation) will be noted in the course of the section. What should be stressed in the first instance, however, is the commonality. In all of these perspectives social programmes are regarded as products of the human imagination: they are hypothesis about social betterment. Programmes chart out a perceived course whereby wrongs might be put to rights, deficiencies of behaviour corrected, inequalities of condition alleviated. Programmes are thus shaped by a vision of change and they succeed or fail according to the veracity of that vision. Evaluation, by these lights, has the task of testing out the underlying programme theories. When one evaluates realistically one always returns to the core theories about how a programme is supposed to work and then interrogates it-is that basic plan sound, plausible, durable, practical and, above all, valid?