ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some of the 'specifics' of evaluative research in the self help field. Evaluation seems to be a widely accepted scientific tool for the description of activities and their effects on the addressed population. This includes the health sector as many others. It seems to be reasonable to extend evaluative questions also into the self help activities of the population. But, with this perspective of evaluative research, scientific projects are the objects of different and antagonistic forces in our societies in the same way as self help initiatives are. It is necessary for both types of activities (self help and research) to describe and take into account the political and institutional context of their activities. It is related to features of the German health system and of the German research funding system. The chapter follows more specific considerations about possibilities and restrictions on evaluation research in health-related self help.
