The practice of evaluation as an evaluation of practices

This article describes the theoretical basis and characteristics of a process-based, negotiated and generative approach to the evaluation of organizations. Illustrated by a case study, it highlights the inappropriateness of standardized instruments in the face of complexity and uncertainty, suggesting ways to improve the practice of evaluating dynamic complex systems. It underlines how conducting an evaluation within an organization is an opportunity to produce knowledge that reflects on and can potentially transform existing systems. Using an action-research method, ‘instructions to the double’, the implications for data collection and analysis suited to complex interventions and complex environments, are presented and discussed. In particular, the article describes the monitoring and evaluation of practices as unfolding processes, in which evaluative methods and tools are context dependent and subject to social, dynamic and contested mobilization of knowledge. The collective negotiation and production of knowledge in collaboration with practitioners working within the organization, is considered as the necessary condition for enhancing the formative and transformative role of evaluation and supporting reflexivity in professional practices.