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 the
founders and most prolific contributors to the professional and transdiscipline of evaluation --
Professor Michael Scriven, and to illuminate the future of evaluation in society. Professor Scriven
often shares stories of his meetings with Albert Einsten and the frame-breaking evaluation revolution
he has led against the value free doctrine of the social sciences. Both his wide eyed graduate
students and the more grizzled evaluation veterans in his professional development workshops
quickly learn that Scriven is well traveled and has exchanged some of the boldest ideas and visions with the most brilliant thinkers of
his time. Scriven insisted that the 2011 Stauffer Symposium and this volume be organized in that genre. He urged us to invite the most
thoughtful and influential evaluation theorists and practitioners we could find to join him in a conversation about the future of evaluation
in society.
Scriven challenges us to examine the five great paradigm shifts that have revolutionized the foundations of evaluation, and that he
believes will form the basis for a much brighter future for evaluation in society. Scriven's revolutionary ideas are followed and challenged
by a group of thought leaders in evaluation who do not necessarily shared his views on evaluation, but who have earned his
deepest respect and whose evaluation work he admires including Michael Quinn Patton, Ernest House, Daniel Stufflebeam, Robert
Stake, Jennifer Greene, Karen Kirkhart, Melvin Mark, Rodney Hopson, and Christina Christie. However, despite his insistence that his
colleagues stay focused on the future of evaluation, you will find that many have recounted their adventures, exchanges, and debates
with him over the years, as well as pointed out the many contributions that he has made to
the development of evaluation and to the improvement of society through his amazing portfolio
of evaluation contributions.
The Future of Evaluation in Society: A Tribute to Michael Scriven will be of great interest
to evaluation scholars, practitioners, and students of evaluation. It will be appropriate for
use in a wide range of evaluation courses including Introduction to Evaluation, Evaluation
Theory, and Evaluation Practice courses.