Who benefits? Who loses?
| Author | Bronwyn Stafford |
| DOI | 10.1177/1035719X0100100209 |
| Published date | 01 December 2001 |
| Date | 01 December 2001 |
| Published By | Sage Publications, Inc. |
| Subject Matter | Opinion |
31
Who benefits? Who
loses?
OPINION
Bronwyn Stafford I imagine that many readers have benefited from joining one or more of the
plethora of listservs1 that link practitioners across the ether. Over the years I have
joined (and left) a variety of these electronic communities. Having begun formal
academic study in evaluation I decided to join EvalTalk2 in search of current
discourse on theory and practice.
The events in New York and Washington on 11 September 2001 prompted an
intense three-week exchange. I want to acknowledge the significant impact of this
event on the people of the United States of America and that this may, in part,
account for some of the more extreme reactions. However, it was the content of the
discourse that gave me cause to consider the relationship between values, prejudices
and experiences and how an event is interpreted. It seems to me that these are at the
very heart of what we do as evaluators and, as such, we have a professional
responsibility to explore them in some detail. It is important to note here that I
haven’t analysed the threads extensively (and have no intention of doing so). The
purpose of this article is not to initiate a political debate. What I’d like to share are
some thoughts as a ‘developing’ evaluator from ‘observing’ the exchange.
I was surprised that rhetoric, polemic and personal attack were used so liberally.
This seemed inconsistent with values of a community of practitioners who primarily
earn their living by taking opinions, ideas and beliefs into account when considering
the value or worth of an intervention. It was obvious that some contributors had not
checked their assumptions before forming judgements. For example, expressions of
‘non-mainstream’ views were interpreted as support of al-Qaeda’s actions and, by
implication anti-American.
What intrigued me was the reliance on ‘tone’ as a departure point for criticism.
The ‘tone’ of a posting that raised issues outside the mainstream was considered
offensive. I couldn’t ‘see’
offence in the posting, but
then, I tended to agree with
the ideas being expressed.
I realise that this is to do
with interpreting the written
word and is dependent on the
context in which the event
occurs. But isn’t that how we
deal with the data on which
we base our work? I was left wondering whether, for some contributors, the only
values worth considering are those that they find palatable and, if so, what effect
does this have on their practice?
The possible roles that standards can play were described in the ‘First
Amendment’ debate. The freedom of speech argument raged and when it appeared to
be losing some ground, standards, definitions and governance were called on to
bolster it.
The ‘off-topic rule’3 was applied liberally but without clear definition it was used
Stafford – Opinion
Reflections of an EvalTalk lurker
I was surprised that rhetoric, polemic and personal attack
were used so liberally. This seemed inconsistent with values
of a community of practitioners who primarily earn their
living by taking opinions, ideas and beliefs into account
when considering the value or worth of an intervention.
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