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Evaluation Paradoxes: Responding to Tensions Between Stability and Change in Social Investment Evaluation
Malmö University, Faculty of Health and Society (HS), Department of Social Work (SA).ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3565-6563
2023 (English)In: American Journal of Evaluation, ISSN 1098-2140, E-ISSN 1557-0878Article in journal (Refereed) Epub ahead of print
Abstract [en]

The relationship between stability and change is a central paradox of administration that pervades all forms of organizing. Evaluation is not unfamiliar with paradoxical objectives and roles, which can result in tensions for evaluators and stakeholders. In this article, paradoxes between stability and change in the implementation of evaluation, and responses to them, are investigated through the case of social investment funds in Swedish local government. From interviews with staff, managers, and evaluators, findings show how responses to four main paradoxes give priority to top-down summative evaluation that produces instrumental knowledge on outcomes and costs for decision makers. The responses show that the concept of social investment fund evaluation is elastic to contain paradoxes and address different audiences. Also, paradoxes within the structure of the organization develop into paradoxes concerning the roles and goals of evaluation, raising the question of whether individual actors can deal with paradoxes.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2023.
National Category
Social Work
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-61787DOI: 10.1177/10982140231185741ISI: 001034223300001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85165934112OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-61787DiVA, id: diva2:1785935
Funder
Forte, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, 2017-02151Available from: 2023-08-07 Created: 2023-08-07 Last updated: 2023-08-16Bibliographically approved

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Nordesjö, Kettil

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