Additional resources - Evidence

Broadening our approach to evidence

Further reading and guides for anyone interested in learning more about this topic.

1. Better Evaluation: A global hub for alternative evaluation methods, including practitioner-edited entries on contribution analysis, developmental evaluation, realist methods, outcome harvesting and many others. https://www.betterevaluation.org/

2. Thinking in Systems (Donella Meadows, Chelsea Green): A classic primer on systems-thinking, including a hierarchy of leverage points for intervening in systems: https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/thinking-in-systems/

3. The Tyranny of Metrics (Jerry Z. Muller, Princeton): A short, punchy book on how a fixation on metrics can distort public services and narrow our field of view: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691174952/the-tyranny-of-metrics

4. A Vision of Metascience (Michael Nielsen and Kanjun Qiu): An essay exploring the analogous challenge of scientific discovery process having become stuck in a series of local maximums: https://scienceplusplus.org/metascience/

5. System Failure: Why Governments Must Learn to Think Differently (Jake Chapman, Demos, 2004): A pamphlet making the case for systems thinking in government: https://demos.co.uk/research/systemfailure2/

6. The Imaginary Crisis (and how we might quicken social and public imagination) (Geoff Mulgan): An essay on imagination as policy infrastructure: https://www.geoffmulgan.com/post/social-imagination

7. Doughnut Economics (Kate Raworth, Random House): The defining popular text on beyond-GDP framing: https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/

8. Human Learning Systems: A Practical Guide for the Curious (Toby Lowe et al., Centre for Public Impact): An open-access manual for HLS practice - a full practical guide to permissive, learning-led public-service learning: https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/assets/pdfs/hls-practical-guide.pdf

9. Realist Impact Evaluation: An Introduction (Gill Westhorp, ODI): A short, plain-English practitioner guide to realist evaluation as a more complexity-aware alternative to RCTs: https://cdn.odi.org/media/documents/9138.pdf

10. Participatory Futures (Nesta): A guide to running collective imagination, foresight and scenario processes inside public institutions: https://www.nesta.org.uk/report/participatory-futures/