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‘We know it works..’: The Troubled Families Programme and the pre-determined boundary judgements of decontextualised policy evaluation

Silver, D.; Crossley, S.

‘We know it works..’: The Troubled Families Programme and the pre-determined boundary judgements of decontextualised policy evaluation Thumbnail


Authors

D. Silver



Abstract

This article draws on the Troubled Families Programme (TFP) to highlight the ways in which particular contexts – such as socioeconomic and symbolic structures – are neglected in forms of evaluation with an establishment orientation. The article problematises two key aspects of decontextualised evaluation: firstly, the privileging of pre-determined relations of cause and effect; and secondly, the unproblematized framing of policy problems. More contextualised forms of evaluation are presented as a way to open up boundaries of investigation. Lastly, it is argued that an anti-naturalist foundation for evaluation can broaden the scope of learning beyond the original framing of a policy.

Citation

Silver, D., & Crossley, S. (2020). ‘We know it works..’: The Troubled Families Programme and the pre-determined boundary judgements of decontextualised policy evaluation. Critical Social Policy, 40(4), 566-585. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018319892443

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 30, 2019
Online Publication Date Dec 18, 2019
Publication Date Nov 1, 2020
Deposit Date Jul 13, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Critical Social Policy
Print ISSN 0261-0183
Electronic ISSN 1461-703X
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 40
Issue 4
Pages 566-585
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018319892443

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Accepted Journal Article (384 Kb)
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Copyright Statement
Daniel Silver and Stephen Crossley, Contribution Title, Critical Social Policy (40:4) pp. 566-585. Copyright © 2019 (The Authors). DOI: 10.1177/0261018319892443




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