![Evaluating the effectiveness of impact assessment instruments : Theorising the nature and implications of their political constitution . Matthew Cashmore ( [email_address] ); Tim Richardson; Tuija Hilding-Rydevik; and, Lars Emmelin.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/effectivenessworkshop-100121141657-phpapp02/85/The-political-constitution-of-IA-instruments-1-320.jpg)
![Science and the framing of policy debates. RGW [Robin Grove-White]: Do you think people are reasonable to have concerns about possible ‘unknown unknowns’ where GM plants are concerned? Advisory scientist: Which unknowns? RGW: That’s precisely the point. They aren’t possible to specify in advance… Advisory scientist: I’m afraid it’s impossible for me to respond unless you can give a clearer indication of the unknowns you’re speaking about. RGW: In that case, don’t you think you should add health warnings to the advice you’re giving to ministers, indicating that there may be ‘unknown unknowns’ which you can’t address? Advisory scientist: No, as scientists, we have to be specific. We can’t proceed on the basis of imaginings from some fevered brow…” (Grove-White, 2001: 471)](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/effectivenessworkshop-100121141657-phpapp02/85/The-political-constitution-of-IA-instruments-7-320.jpg)
The political constitution of IA instruments
- 1. Evaluating the effectiveness of impact assessment instruments : Theorising the nature and implications of their political constitution . Matthew Cashmore ( [email_address] ); Tim Richardson; Tuija Hilding-Rydevik; and, Lars Emmelin.
- 2. Evaluating effectiveness. The challenges of evaluation. The high level of recent interest in evaluation has not been matched by work to address significant epistemic (methodological) and conceptual uncertainties. Research goal: To advance the conceptual basis of evaluation. In what ways, how and to what extent are IA instruments politicised? What are the implications for evaluation theory?
- 3. Political science: The meaning of politics. Politics as the study of “who gets what, when and how?” (Lasswell, 1935). Power expressed visibly as coercion or violence, but also more insidiously as taken for-granted social norms and customs.
- 4. Political dimensions of IA. Political science. Starting point in the analysis was to identify fundamentally political characteristics of IA instruments. Based on premise of engendering change in values underlying policy formulation. Governance norms draw boundaries around how policy issues are framed, analysed and debated. Concern distributional justice (e.g. allocation of resources) and liberties.
- 5. IA and governmentality. Use of IA in developing a “new cognitive mapping of Lao nature and society” (Goldman, 2001). Reform predicated on an environmental ethic: biodiversity conservation. International goals: served to open up Lao to Western business interests. National goals: dispossessed the non-Lao minority communities of natural resources and livelihood.
- 6. Science as political culture: Power in and through science. Produce particular representation of policy issues through its influence on the framing and interpretation of societal issues.
- 7. Science and the framing of policy debates. RGW [Robin Grove-White]: Do you think people are reasonable to have concerns about possible ‘unknown unknowns’ where GM plants are concerned? Advisory scientist: Which unknowns? RGW: That’s precisely the point. They aren’t possible to specify in advance… Advisory scientist: I’m afraid it’s impossible for me to respond unless you can give a clearer indication of the unknowns you’re speaking about. RGW: In that case, don’t you think you should add health warnings to the advice you’re giving to ministers, indicating that there may be ‘unknown unknowns’ which you can’t address? Advisory scientist: No, as scientists, we have to be specific. We can’t proceed on the basis of imaginings from some fevered brow…” (Grove-White, 2001: 471)
- 8. Evaluating effectiveness: A learning paradigm. From measuring to understanding. Effectiveness evaluation as a mechanism for giving voice to plural interpretations concerning the design and use of IA instruments, and to promote learning by deconstructing these perspectives and analysing their meanings. Support for an alternative framing in contemporary research: Importance of social legitimacy in knowledge use; Need for more honesty about constraints to knowledge use; Importance of conceptual outcomes.