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

Silver, Daniel and Crossley, Stephen (2020) ‘We know it works. . .’: The Troubled Families Programme and the pre-determined boundary judgements of decontextualised policy evaluation. Critical Social Policy, 40 (4). pp. 566-585. ISSN 0261-0183

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	anti-naturalist, boundary critique, evaluation, policy, troubled families programme
Subjects:	L400 Social Policy
Department:	Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Social Work, Education and Community Wellbeing
Depositing User:	Elena Carlaw
Date Deposited:	03 Jan 2020 11:27
Last Modified:	08 Feb 2021 16:16
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/41798

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