 |
 |
Hi Mark, Here a few: How would you describe the purpose of an evaluation/synthesis of evidence for understanding this set of phenomena? Is it to arrive at a 'best practice', an 'optimal policy solution', a 'deeper understanding', 'illumination', or some other purpose? How do you think complexity and context relate to a policy/program's ability to affect positive changes in the outcomes you are concerned with? How do you conceptualize 'outcomes' for this project? Are there process-related or implementation outcomes? What are the time-scales of the different outcomes (immediate, inter-mediate, long-term)? Are these outcomes related to each other in some sort of logic model or theorized causal chain? Are you concerned to establish causal 'attribution' to the program or policy intervention for specified outcomes, or are you more concerned with analyzing how the program or policy 'contributes' to the outcomes? Hope this helps Cheers, Simon On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 5:12 AM, Mark Pearson <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > My experience is that as realist approaches make their way into the > mainstream they are increasingly being called upon as components of wider > research projects. This means working with a range of people who have more > or less (probably less) of an understanding of realism and putting it into > practice. It also often means that assumptions about the world are merrily > skirted over in the hubbub of getting a project up-and-running, only to > awkwardly pop up later on. > > So - What questions would you ask at the start of a project to throw light > on people's assumptions about how the world 'works' and what it means for > how we research it? (this is my effort at asking a question about ontology, > which I'm taking here to mean 'how the world must be in order for knowledge > to exist') > > I'm not searching for a comprehensive list of questions, but perhaps a > distillation of 2-3 key questions to start the conversation? > > Mark > > Mark Pearson PhD > Senior Research Fellow > Peninsula Technology Assessment Group (PenTAG) > University of Exeter Medical School > E: [log in to unmask] > T: 0044 (0) 1392 726079 > http://medicine.exeter.ac.uk/about/profiles/index.php?web_id=Mark_Pearson >