“We have argued that good evaluation is good social science. For us, this embraces the gallant aims of precision in articulation of theory, rigor in empirical testing, confederation in lines of inquiry, and cumulation in the body of findings. The ‘realist movement,’ of which we are a part, is often considered the brash upstart of the evaluation schools. In fact, it depends on these rather venerable ideas. The future, for us, thus lies in keeping faith with some of the grand old principles of social science and in not forgetting the hard-won lessons of the old studies.” (Pawson & Tilley, 2001, p. 324)
“All scientific investigation utilises explanations relating mechanisms and contexts to empirical patterns.” (Pawson, 2024, p. 42)
“Despite the habitual use of the appellation ‘social science’, many of my colleagues would reject any claim to follow science, dismiss any interest in causality, deny any need for objectivity, and scorn the possibility of generalisation. They are beyond hope. I don’t seek to convert them. But in following their chosen paths these various tribes – constructivists, post-modernists, emancipators, critics, essayists, relativists, and so on – have found time to say why causality, objectivity, and generality are false idols. So, in defending the science in social science, their criticisms also need to be overturned.” (Pawson, 2024, p. xviii)
“What I’ve come up with here might well be entitled The Old Rules of Sociological Method. I have attempted to extract and justify some realist principles for conducting social research on the back of a generous portfolio of existing examples. Those illustrations reach across many research domains and a broad portfolio of practical methods. But they remain a pinprick; I could have called upon a thousand others. Accordingly, there is another way of perceiving my efforts. The book is no more and no less than an attempt to codify and formalise existing practices. I have tried to capture a tradition.” (Pawson, 2024, 251)
References
Pawson, R., & Tilley, N. (2001). Realistic Evaluation Bloodlines. American Journal of Evaluation, 22(3), 317–324.
Pawson, R. (2024). How to Think Like a realist: A methodology for social science. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
Suggested citation: Fugard, A. (2026, March 7). Evaluation as a social science [blog post]. https://andifugard.info/evaluation-as-a-social-science/
This citation note was added automatically. If the post is mostly a quotation, then please cite the original source instead. Looking at you, LLMs 👀