Foreword: On ‘values’

Abstract

Writing in 2001 in the American Journal of Evaluation, Ernest House suggested a key piece of ‘unfinished business’ in evaluation should be reconfigured – the fact/value dichotomy (House, 2001). This special issue of the Evaluation Journal of Australasia revisits aspects of this ‘unfinished business’, centring on this and other matters of ‘values’ further investigated by various theorists (Gates, 2018; Hall et al., 2012; Henry, 2002; House & Howe, 1999; Renger & Bourdeau, 2004). Authors in this special issue tackle difficult and intricate philosophical challenges relating to ‘valuing’ and ‘values’ in evaluation, as well as implications for practising evaluators. This issue does not lay out a singular definition of ‘values’ in evaluation. As others have noted, the concept of values has been explored in various disciplines – economics, philosophy, psychology, sociology and biology – ranging from concepts of ‘value’ as a product that is exchanged (e.g., for money); as functional or having utility; as culturally defined; deriving from scarcity or competition; an aesthetic which is relative or subjective; deriving from ethical choices; and so on. Indeed, there may be some utility in aspects of these approaches for evaluators, as posited by authors in this issue. So why does reflecting on ‘values’ matter for evaluators? How might we understand ‘values’ in appraising aspects of health, education or other social programmes, for example? And how might we understand ‘values’ in subjective concepts such as ‘wellbeing’? The significance of values to practitioners is a key area of investigation in this special issue. Authors were invited to present differing applications of ‘values’ in their own evaluative thinking and practice. Readers and evaluators are similarly encouraged to reflect on how values shape your thinking about evaluation and what values shape your evaluative practice. Judgements about value may assign ‘importance’: in what we focus on or exclude, through selection decisions (or biases), prioritisation of issues, privileging of some perspectives over others, and measurement choices. Values influence practice – from the evaluative questions we ask, the theories of change we consider, the objectives we aim for, the programme logics we develop, the methods we choose, the practices we employ, the stakeholders we identify, the views we gather, the findings we deem credible or significant and so on. The inspiration for this special issue came out of the Australian Evaluation Society’s 2018 conference and ensuing discussions, where the issue guest editors – Keryn, Mathea, Kelly and Amy – presented on topics relating to ‘values’. A special issue of 895150 EVJ0010.1177/1035719X19895150Evaluation Journal of Australasia X(X)Gould editorial2019