Ideal-types of Health Promotion E valuation P ractice

1. Ideal-types of Health Promotion Evaluation Practice Louise Potvin, PhD Université de Montréal III SaminarioBrasileiro de EfetivivadedaPromoçaodaSaude Rio de Janeiro, May 24 2011

2. Message • Evaluation is a practice whose objects are other practices that aim at transforming social conditions • Evaluation methods are not disconnected from the other dimensions that constitute practice • Health promotion evaluation practices are diverse and serve various ends

3. Useful Definitions

4. Health promotion interventions Complexity • Population health interventions are « social » by nature; they involve: • transformative actions of humans on the determinants of human health • coordinating actions from social agents capable of agency • Interactions among interventions’ components and with contextual elements produce the intervention • Health promotion interventions are always situated in time and place • Health promotion interventions are complex open systems

5. Innovation: Three propositions from the Actor-Network Theory • Innovation results from a tinkering that consist in reorganising, and developing new, connections between pre-existing entities. • Innovation is supported by a socio-technical network in which controversies emerge • Evaluation results are instrumental to solve controversies, consolidate the socio-technical network and support innovation

6. Evaluation Research: Making sense Evaluation research: Making sense Evaluation assists sense making about policies and programs through the conduct of systematic inquiry that describes and explains the policie’s and program’s operations, effects, justifications and social implications(Mark, Henry & Julnes, 2000, p.3) Mark, M., Henry, G. T., & Julnes, G. (2000). Evaluation. An integrated framework for understanding, guiding, and improving public and non profit policies and programs. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

7. Evaluation research 1: Why to evaluate? Assist in sense making Understanding as oppose to judging 2: How to evaluate? Systematic inquiry Scientific activity 3: What to evaluate? operations, effects, justifications and social implications of policies and programs All elements of a system of action and their interactions

8. Practice • Transformative action of a subject on an « object »: the object of health promotion evaluation is another practice (T. Schwandt) • Evaluation results are contingent to the evaluators: • Point of view • Training • Conception of science and scientific work • Context of practice

9. The Practice of Health Promotion Evaluation

10. Four dimensions of practice 1: Teleology: What is the aim of the practice? To which project does it contribute? 2: Ontology: What is the object the practice aims to change. What is the nature of this object 3: Epistemology: How can one know about the object of the practice? What is the relationship between the subject and the object? 4: Methodology: How is the object transformed? What are the actions operated through the practice

11. Three ideal-types of evaluation practice Evaluation as experimentation Test Hypotheses TELEOLOGY Develop shared representation Conditions that re-produce action Evaluation as mediation Evaluation as organised reflexivity

12. Three ideal-types of evaluation practice Evaluation as experimentation Technical entities ONTOLOGY Actors’ representations System of actions Evaluation as mediation Evaluation as organised reflexivity

13. Three ideal-types of evaluation practice Evaluation as experimentation Positivism EPISTEMOLOGY Critical realism Constructivism Evaluation as mediation Evaluation as organised reflexivity

14. Three ideal-types of evaluation practice Evaluation as experimentation Experimental manipulation METHODOLOGY Follow the action Hermeneutic circles Evaluation as mediation Evaluation as organised reflexivity

16. Conclusion and Key Messages

17. Message • Evaluation is a practice whose objects are other practices that aim at transforming social conditions • Evaluation methods are not disconnected from the other dimensions that constitute practice • Health promotion evaluation practices are diverse and serve various ends