Ideal-types of Health Promotion Evaluation Practice
Louise Potvin, PhDUniversité de Montréal
III Saminario Brasileiro de Efetivivade da Promoçao da Saude
Rio de Janeiro, May 24 2011
• Evaluation is a practice whose objects are other practices that aim at transforming social conditions
• Evaluation methods are not disconnected from the other dimensions that constitute practice
• Health promotion evaluation practices are diverse and serve various ends
Message
Useful Definitions
• Population health interventions are « social » by nature; they involve: – transformative actions of humans on the
determinants of human health– coordinating actions from social agents capable
of agency• Interactions among interventions’
components and with contextual elements produce the intervention
• Health promotion interventions are always situated in time and place
• Health promotion interventions are complex open systems
Health promotion interventions Complexity
• Innovation results from a tinkering that consist in reorganising, and developing new, connections between pre-existing entities.
• Innovation is supported by a socio-technical network in which controversies emerge
• Evaluation results are instrumental to solve controversies, consolidate the socio-technical network and support innovation
Innovation: Three propositions from the Actor-Network Theory
Evaluation Research: Making sense
Evaluation assists sense making about policies and programs through the conduct of systematic inquiry that describes and explains the policie’s and program’s operations, effects, justifications and social implications (Mark, Henry & Julnes, 2000, p.3)
Mark, M., Henry, G. T., & Julnes, G. (2000). Evaluation. An integrated framework for understanding, guiding, and improving public and non profit policies and programs. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Evaluation research: Making sense
1: Why to evaluate? Assist in sense making
Understanding as oppose to judging
2: How to evaluate? Systematic inquiry
Scientific activity
3: What to evaluate? operations, effects, justifications and social implications of policies and programs
All elements of a system of action and their interactions
Evaluation research
• Transformative action of a subject on an « object »: the object of health promotion evaluation is another practice (T. Schwandt)
• Evaluation results are contingent to the evaluators: Point of view Training Conception of science and scientific
work Context of practice
Practice
The Practice of Health Promotion Evaluation
1: Teleology: What is the aim of the practice? To which project does it contribute?
2: Ontology: What is the object the practice aims to change. What is the nature of this object
3: Epistemology: How can one know about the object of the practice? What is the relationship between the subject and the object?
4: Methodology: How is the object transformed? What are the actions operated through the practice
Four dimensions of practice
Three ideal-types of evaluation practice
Evaluation as experimentation
Evaluation as mediation Evaluation as organised reflexivity
TELEOLOGY
Test Hypothese
s
Develop shared
representation
Conditions that re-produce action
Three ideal-types of evaluation practice
Evaluation as experimentation
Evaluation as mediation Evaluation as organised reflexivity
ONTOLOGY
Technical entities
Actors’ representation
s
System of actions
Three ideal-types of evaluation practice
Evaluation as experimentation
Evaluation as mediation Evaluation as organised reflexivity
EPISTEMOLOGY
Positivism
Constructivism
Critical realism
Three ideal-types of evaluation practice
Evaluation as experimentation
Evaluation as mediation Evaluation as organised reflexivity
METHODOLOGY
Experimental manipulation
Hermeneutic circles
Follow the action
Conclusion and Key Messages
• Evaluation is a practice whose objects are other practices that aim at transforming social conditions
• Evaluation methods are not disconnected from the other dimensions that constitute practice
• Health promotion evaluation practices are diverse and serve various ends
Message