Beyond Technique

Abstract

This article addresses the evaluative concerns of feminists and other critical thinkers who are politically committed to an agenda for social change. Attempts to move beyond traditional concepts of social programming, particularly those which are empowerment oriented, run the risk of being at odds with available evaluation strategies. The argument being presented is that the incompatibility between empowerment-oriented interventions and traditional evaluation practice is more an issue of discourse than it is of methodology or technique. A Habermasian perspective is applied to identify the critical interest of empowerment-oriented social programs and the implications this has for evaluation research. An evaluation strategy informed by feminist and critical thinking is discussed as a means for restructuring the evaluation function so as to make it more consistent with this critical interest.