|
'Improved
Representations Of Change Processes: Improved Theories Of
Change' is the title of a 28 page paper presented at the European
Evaluation Society annual conference in Seville this October.
It
spells out six different types of change processes and how
these can be represented in development agencies theories
of change (aka project proposals and plans). The Logical Framework
is taken as the initial reference point as a way of representing
these changes. As well as simply pointing out the Logical
Framework's limitations the author also points out a range
of ways of overcoming these limitations with other
methods developed in work with six different development projects
over the last three years. The most innovatory proposals concern
the adoption of techniques used for social network analysis
to represent expected and actual changes resulting from development
agencies. Network perspectives
are attractive in that (a) their assumptions are more consistent
with our experience, (b) there is a wealth of experience with
different methods of representing network structures in diagrammatic
and other forms, (c) research into network phenomenon at various
scales offer many candidate hypotheses about how complex changes
can emerge from the actions of many actors.
Dr
Rick Davies
Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist
Cambridge, UK
Phone: 44 (0)1223 841367
Email: rick@shimbir.demon.co.uk
Web sites: www.mande.co.uk
http://www.swan.ac.uk/cds/rd/rd1.htm
|
