Evaluation and Turbulent Times ― Reflections on a Discipline in Disarray

Political and other social scientists investigate the impact crises have on evaluating public and corporate policy, and how policy evaluation can contribute in times of turbulence. The volume was conceived in 2009 as the banking scandal was impoverishing the world, and was flavored by a week at the Rockefeller Foundation's Italian center. The topics include the challenges for evaluation, the case for scenario-based approaches, whether evaluation can help solve the European dilemma of public spending, evaluating the World Bank Group's response to the global economic crisis in real time, comparing emergency legislation in Britain and the US after 9/11, and evaluation in the context of humanitarian crises. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)