IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/epplan/v73y2019icp88-96.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is evaluation obsolete in a post-truth world?

Author

Listed:
  • Picciotto, Robert

Abstract

The contemporary post-truth phenomenon is characterised by denial of facts and tolerance of politicians’ lies. It has enhanced the appeal of authoritarian and nationalist leaders as a populist reaction to policy failures. While emerging market countries hugely benefited from globalization, the hourly wages of working people in high-income countries have stagnated while inequality has surged, and environmental stresses have escalated. Post-truth dispositions are distorting decision making in the public sphere and they have increased public distrust of knowledge professionals. This is likely to aggravate the very problems that gave rise to the post-truth phenomenon. Evaluation can help reverse the trends that underlie voters’ anxieties, amplification of tribal prejudices and appeals to national pride through sound advice, transparency and public education. This will require new evaluation policy directions. Evaluation internationalization, diversification, democratization and professionalization will have to take place simultaneously.

Suggested Citation

  • Picciotto, Robert, 2019. "Is evaluation obsolete in a post-truth world?," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 88-96.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:epplan:v:73:y:2019:i:c:p:88-96
    DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2018.12.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014971891830329X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2018.12.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pedro Olinto & Jaime Saavedra, 2012. "An Overview of Global Income Inequality Trends," World Bank - Inequality in Focus, The World Bank, vol. 1(1), pages 1-4, April.
    2. Otker-Robe, Inci & Podpiera, Anca Maria, 2013. "The social impact of financial crises: evidence from the global financial crisis," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6703, The World Bank.
    3. Patton, Michael Quinn & Horton, Douglas, 2008. "Utilization-focused evaluation for agricultural innovation," ILAC Briefs 52533, Institutional Learning and Change (ILAC) Initiative.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Picciotto, Robert, 2021. "Evaluation as a social practice: Disenchantment, rationalities and ethics," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    2. Kooli, Chokri, 2019. "Governing and managing higher education institutions: The quality audit contributions," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    3. Karolina Nowak, 2020. "The state of truth in the context of globalization," Ekonomia i Prawo, Uniwersytet Mikolaja Kopernika, vol. 19(1), pages 85-97, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lifshitz, Chen Chana, 2017. "Fostering employability among youth at-risk in a multi-cultural context: Insights from a pilot intervention program," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 20-34.
    2. Moreno-Maldonado, C. & Jiménez-Iglesias, A. & Camacho, I. & Rivera, F. & Moreno, C. & Matos, M.G., 2020. "Factors associated with life satisfaction of adolescents living with employed and unemployed parents in Spain and Portugal: A person focused approach," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    3. Jacques Fontanel, 2017. "La globalisation économique, un rapport de forces entre Etats et intérêts privés producteur d’inégalités, de conflits et de guerres économiques," Working Papers hal-02179483, HAL.
    4. Kupiec, Tomasz, 2022. "Does evaluation quality matter? Quantitative analysis of the use of evaluation findings in the field of cohesion policy in Poland," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    5. Gullickson, Amy M. & King, Jean A. & LaVelle, John M. & Clinton, Janet M., 2019. "The current state of evaluator education: A situation analysis and call to action," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 20-30.
    6. Harman, Elena & Azzam, Tarek, 2018. "Incorporating public values into evaluative criteria: Using crowdsourcing to identify criteria and standards," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 68-82.
    7. Pleasant, Andrew & O’Leary, Catina & Carmona, Richard H., 2020. "Using formative research to tailor a community intervention focused on the prevention of chronic disease," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    8. Gagnon, France & Aubry, Tim & Cousins, J. Bradley & Goh, Swee C. & Elliott, Catherine, 2018. "Validation of the evaluation capacity in organizations questionnaire," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 166-175.
    9. Szijarto, Barbara & Milley, Peter & Svensson, Kate & Cousins, J. Bradley, 2018. "On the evaluation of social innovations and social enterprises: Recognizing and integrating two solitudes in the empirical knowledge base," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 20-32.
    10. Neumann, Jan & Robson, Andrew & Sloan, Diane, 2018. "Monitoring and evaluation of strategic change programme implementation—Lessons from a case analysis," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 120-132.
    11. Anna Kokkevi & Myrto Stavrou & Eleftheria Kanavou & Anastasios Fotiou & Clive Richardson, 2018. "Adolescents in Greece in Time of Economic Crisis," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 11(3), pages 945-962, June.
    12. Alemdar, Meltem & Cappelli, Christopher J. & Criswell, Brett A. & Rushton, Gregory T., 2018. "Evaluation of a Noyce program: Development of teacher leaders in STEM education," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 1-11.
    13. Bourgeois, Isabelle & Whynot, Jane, 2018. "The influence of evaluation recommendations on instrumental and conceptual uses: A preliminary analysis," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 13-18.
    14. Kalpazidou Schmidt, Evanthia & Graversen, Ebbe Krogh, 2020. "Developing a conceptual evaluation framework for gender equality interventions in research and innovation," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    15. Arasanz, Carla & Nylen, Kirk, 2020. "The theory of change of the evaluation support program: Enhancing the role of community organizations in providing an ecology of care for neurological disorders," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    16. Schalock, Robert L. & Lee, Tim & Verdugo, Miguel & Swart, Kees & Claes, Claudia & van Loon, Jos & Lee, Chun-Shin, 2014. "An evidence-based approach to organization evaluation and change in human service organizations evaluation and program planning," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 110-118.
    17. Renger, Ralph & Foltysova, Jirina & Becker, Karin L. & Souvannasacd, Eric, 2015. "The power of the context map: Designing realistic outcome evaluation strategies and other unanticipated benefits," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 118-125.
    18. Rorrer, Audrey S., 2016. "An evaluation capacity building toolkit for principal investigators of undergraduate research experiences: A demonstration of transforming theory into practice," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 103-111.
    19. Abboud, Rida & Claussen, Caroline, 2016. "The use of Outcome Harvesting in learning-oriented and collaborative inquiry approaches to evaluation: An example from Calgary, Alberta," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 47-54.
    20. Charles N. Herrick, 2018. "Self-Identity and Sense of Place: Some Thoughts regarding Climate Change Adaptation Policy Formulation," Environmental Values, , vol. 27(1), pages 81-102, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:epplan:v:73:y:2019:i:c:p:88-96. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/evalprogplan .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.