The Future of Evaluation in Society

The impetus for this volume lives in a rich and vibrant past. It is organized to honor one of thefounders and most prolific contributors to the professional and transdiscipline of evaluation --Professor Michael Scriven, and to illuminate the future of evaluation in society. Professor Scrivenoften shares stories of his meetings with Albert Einsten and the frame-breaking evaluation revolutionhe has led against the value free doctrine of the social sciences. Both his wide eyed graduatestudents and the more grizzled evaluation veterans in his professional development workshopsquickly learn that Scriven is well traveled and has exchanged some of the boldest ideas and visions with the most brilliant thinkers ofhis time. Scriven insisted that the 2011 Stauffer Symposium and this volume be organized in that genre. He urged us to invite the mostthoughtful and influential evaluation theorists and practitioners we could find to join him in a conversation about the future of evaluationin society.Scriven challenges us to examine the five great paradigm shifts that have revolutionized the foundations of evaluation, and that hebelieves will form the basis for a much brighter future for evaluation in society. Scriven's revolutionary ideas are followed and challengedby a group of thought leaders in evaluation who do not necessarily shared his views on evaluation, but who have earned hisdeepest respect and whose evaluation work he admires including Michael Quinn Patton, Ernest House, Daniel Stufflebeam, RobertStake, Jennifer Greene, Karen Kirkhart, Melvin Mark, Rodney Hopson, and Christina Christie. However, despite his insistence that hiscolleagues stay focused on the future of evaluation, you will find that many have recounted their adventures, exchanges, and debateswith him over the years, as well as pointed out the many contributions that he has made tothe development of evaluation and to the improvement of society through his amazing portfolioof evaluation contributions.The Future of Evaluation in Society: A Tribute to Michael Scriven will be of great interestto evaluation scholars, practitioners, and students of evaluation. It will be appropriate foruse in a wide range of evaluation courses including Introduction to Evaluation, EvaluationTheory, and Evaluation Practice courses.