Thanks, Ray, for this timely reminder.

And Gill the pedant would add: patterns of reasoning - absolutely.  Collective reasoning - defined as “cooperative ways of reasoning together” - (Christopher McMahon, Collective Rationality and Collective Reasoning) - only sometimes.

Cheers

Gill

All

Great wisdom all round.

I would add that since RE and RS are forms of programme and policy analysis, the main focus is in collective reasoning or patterns of reasoning rather than the machinations that go on in an individual’s head.

The ‘free rider problem’ provides a neat illustration.

The head in question belongs to Dominic Cummings. He reckons that a 500 mile round trip to Durham does not contravene the travel restrictions imposed under COVID since he will encounter no-one on the journey and will stay in a separate lodge on the family estate. He also figures out that a 20 mile trip to Bernard Castle to test his eye sight is perfectly in line with health and safety regulations. But what goes on in Domworld is of little concerns except as an instance of the free rider problem (people gaining the benefits of an intervention without contributing).

It is the collective response that counts. This event plus the activities of other well-connected free riders caused something of a collective backlash – ‘one law for the establishment and another for the rest of us’. There followed a measurable decline in public confidence (collective reasoning). See Fancourt et al 2020.

RAY

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Hi Fiona

The idea of ‘resources and reasoning’ comes from Pawson and Tilley’s first book, Realistic Evaluation.  As I understand it, they did initially intend ‘reasoning’ in the sense of ‘thought out responses’. However, my sense is that the term is a umbrella for ‘anything that happens inside their heads’ - which can include affective responses. However -  you asked ‘could they be emotional/behavioural?’.  My understanding is that behaviour is different.  Behaviour is ‘external’, manifested, visible - so it is not an invisible, underlying cause. I always treat behaviour as an outcome, even if it is quite proximal and only an intermediate outcome.  This, as I understand it, is why the term ‘response’ was not preferred by Pawson and Tilley - because response can refer to behaviour, not ‘internal’ things.

Cheers

Gill

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Thank you all for your very reasoned, reasonable, responsive responses!:)

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