Contributions of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology as Useful for Evaluation – A Very Brief Overview

Systems Evaluation, Meet Living Systems Science

More Powerful Evaluation by Linking Systems Thinking With Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Research Agenda: Can Evaluation Learn from Ecology and Evolutionary Biology?

Core Justification for Reasoning about Evaluation in Ecological Terms

Evolutionary and Ecological Constructs that may be Useful in Evaluation

Evolutionary and Ecological Thinking – Escaping Disciplinary Boundaries

Webinar slides and recording for “Using Ecology to Evaluate Policy”

Using the Biotic Hierarchy as a Framework for Moving Policy Evaluation Away from a Program Evaluation-like Activity

Slide deck and video – When and how can ideas from Evolutionary Biology and Ecology be useful in program and policy evaluation? February 2020

Evolutionary Biology and Ecology as a Valuable Framework for Some Evaluation

What does evaluation gain from thinking in alien terms? An argument for taking complexity and evolutionary biology seriously

Can Knowledge of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology Inform Evaluation?

Preliminary Notes on The Application of Concepts from Evolutionary Biology and Ecology to Evaluation

Eat dessert first. Life is uncertain.
Good advice. True observation.

Any yet, we must soldier on, trying to predict what will happen and to explain why things work out as they do. My professional life has grappled with prediction and explanation through the lens of program evaluation. I have come to appreciate how much, and how little, evaluation can tell us. Sometimes it is “much”. Sometime is “little”. Sometimes it is “much” and “little” at the same time. This blog expresses my engagement with what evaluation can do, what it cannot do, what it should do, and what it should not do. About the graphic.