ABSTRACT

Everything today is supposed to be evaluated. This chapter discusses and challenges the notion of always asking for more evaluations without considering whether this kind of information is the most relevant, as well as, if evaluations are relevant, what kind of information these evaluations should provide. The first problem, which is called evaluation overload, implies that the call for evaluation is incorporated, purely reflexively, in the Swedish administrative system. Further causal analysis before decisions are taken is suggested, i.e. on why a problem looks like it does. If the idea behind the action taken isn’t clear, i.e. for the problem at stake, both decision makers and evaluators are usually frustrated over the evaluation results. The overload problem also has an impact on the other problem, i.e. evaluation underload. It is not only that there should be fewer evaluations and more space for causal analysis, but also more informative knowledge-oriented evaluations. Causal analysis provides the preconditions for more informative and explanatory evaluations which, in turn, give input to research.