Interesting analysis on the indiscriminate application and diminishing returns to the practice of late through its "performative" use.
Reference to how "....sometimes, agencies can reduce reputational risk and draw legitimacy from having an evaluation system rather than from using it" reminds of the analogy the famous classicist and poet AE Housman made in 1903:
"...gentlemen who use manuscripts as drunkards use lamp-posts,—not to light them on their way but to dissimulate their instability.”
or in plain english relating to the subject: People Use Evaluation as a Drunk Uses a Lamppost — For Support Rather Than Illumination
RE: The skeptical turn in evaluation (and what to do with it)
United Kingdom
Daniel Ticehurst
Monitoring > Evaluation Specialist
freelance
Posted on 20/08/2022
Interesting analysis on the indiscriminate application and diminishing returns to the practice of late through its "performative" use.
Reference to how "....sometimes, agencies can reduce reputational risk and draw legitimacy from having an evaluation system rather than from using it" reminds of the analogy the famous classicist and poet AE Housman made in 1903:
"...gentlemen who use manuscripts as drunkards use lamp-posts,—not to light them on their way but to dissimulate their instability.”
or in plain english relating to the subject: People Use Evaluation as a Drunk Uses a Lamppost — For Support Rather Than Illumination