Welcome to the website of the Use and Influence of Evaluation Topical Interest Group!
The Topical Interest Group on Use and Influence of Evaluation (formerly known as the Evaluation Use TIG) is one of the original TIGs of AEA. It was born of the interest in evaluation utilization in the 1970s, extending into both theoretical and empirical work on Use in the 1980s and 1990s, and to a broader conceptualization of use and influence in the 2000s.
Our Mission: The Use and Influence of Evaluation TIG is committed to understanding and enhancing the use of evaluation in a variety of contexts and to maximizing the positive influence of evaluation through both the evaluation process and the results produced.
Topics of interest to our members include:
- The influence of evaluation on systems
- The social change role of evaluation
- Research on evaluation use
- Strategies for enhancing the use/impact of evaluation
- Ethics and evaluation misuse
- Critical reflection on intended and unintended influences of evaluation—both positive and negative
- Research on effective communication strategies.
- Theories of use
- Metaevaluation of evaluation impact
- Issues of validity as a property of use
- Effective communication of evaluation results
- Organizational change/organizational learning
- Use-enhancing evaluation methods
- Evaluation as a tool for social justice
- Process use
- Barriers to the use of evaluation