ABSTRACT
The purpose of this section is to identify the emergence of the idea of ‘participation’ in health research and evaluation. At the outset I would like to make it clear that health evaluation is increasingly regarded as a discipline in its own right, with its own philosophy and methodological tool kit. I am presently unpersuaded by these arguments. To the extent that health evaluators share the methods and philosophical concerns of other social scientists, I see every reason to locate evaluation firmly in the applied branch of the social
sciences, that is, one that assesses and informs planned interventions in health in accordance with the best principles of social science practice.
