What are you currently working on?
I am teaching evaluation to political science students. I am preparing two presentations for the upcoming conference in Lille. Looking forward to that!
I am working on a book (in Danish) which summarizes structural changes in the landscape of evaluation. I try to understand these changes as empirical manifestations of “the skeptical turn in evaluation.” This is my term for the experiences we have from wall-to-wall evaluation that is becoming too widespread, demanding in terms of time, money and attention, and therefore demotivating.
I think the skeptical turn can be theorized. And that could help evaluation becoming more humble, more focused, and more democratic.
When were you EES President, and what are the key changes in our field and their context since then?
I was president in 2006-2007. We struggled to secure the survival of EES. There were interesting tensions between national specificities and the European perspective, which is quite natural for an organization like ours.
Since then, evaluation and its relation to the world have changed dramatically. Perhaps the most important change is the integration of evaluation into large institutional and bureaucratic machineries. Partly related to this is a significant, conspicuous lack of popularity of evaluation systems among many professionals, citizens, and more.
The theme of the upcoming EES conference is ‘Evaluation for vibrant democracies’; what is your personal connection to this?
I am chairing an expert committee looking at the exam system in Danish schools. We carry out a very comprehensive set of deliberative activities where we involve school children, teachers, officials, experts, and more. I have found it very useful to look at the exam system as a complex evaluative system with many different functions for different partners in society. I see this whole work as an exercise in how we can subject evaluation systems to democratic scrutiny.
We live in turbulent times with much change, including technological change: what do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities for evaluation?
I see enormous challenges in AI. We are told that AI saves time, which I am not sure is correct if we also count all the measures needed to check and control dubious products of AI. I fear that evaluations using AI will produce phony results and will pretend that deliberation has taken place which actually never happened. AI often comes with apparently innocent practices that in fact undermine conventional notions of originality, verifiability, and responsibility. I think AI can be detrimental to the heart of evaluation.
What should the priorities for the EES be in the coming years?
Do not overemphasize how unique and special evaluation is. The walls around evaluation as a field are mostly of interest to relatively few people who think they are centrally placed inside the imaginary circle.
We should remind ourselves that measuring is not enough. Evaluation includes valuing. Also: Reconnect evaluation to its origins in social science, including theory and critical thinking. And talk about how we can mobilize the best parts of the European heritage (democracy, the history of ideas) to make unique contributions to evaluative thinking.
Finally, take the skeptical turn in evaluation seriously.
Finally: what ‘wise advice’ would you like to offer to young and emerging evaluators?
If you want to be a good evaluator you need to read books and study things that are not called “evaluation.”
For example:
- Andrew Sayer: Why things matter to people.
- Hartmut Rosa: Situation and Constellation.
- Hannah Arendt: The Human Condition.
- Paul Feyerabend: Against Method.
Then engage courageously in stuff. And be prepared you might come out with a bloody nose.
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Read this open access article: The sceptical turn in evaluation and what to do with it: Keynote presentation delivered by Peter Dahler-Larsen and Estelle Raimondo at the EES conference in Copenhagen, June 10, 2022 – Peter Dahler-Larsen, Estelle Raimondo, 2024 !