The Emergence Of An Evaluation Culture In The Eu: Between International Practices And Europeanization Pressures

In this paper I refer to the bidirectional relationship between the Europeanization process and the emergence of an evaluation culture in Europe. I examine both the factors associated with the Europeanization process that led to the crystallization of an evaluation culture as well as the manner in which the development of a European evaluation culture lead to a deepening of Europeanization through the institutional mechanisms that have been created. I will then present the convergent influence of Europeanization and globalization, which renders the theme of the net impact of any of the two processes on the formation of an evaluation culture methodologically unapproachable, but brings to the fore the theme of intercontinental factors (mainly North Americans) that play a fundamental role in creating a European public evaluation agenda. Given the multiple influences and pressures exerted both vertically and horizontally, I question the very existence of a specific European culture of evaluation and I ultimately position its nature as being somewhere between imitationalism and syncretism.