New Directions in Peacebuilding Evaluation

Tamra Pearson d’Estrée is Henry R. Luce Professor of Conflict Resolution in the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and has co-directed DU’s Conflict Resolution Institute since 2002.

With this volume, one gets the sense of a discipline coming of age; it articulates a maturing of the field of scholarship around peace-building and conflict engagement/transformation/resolution. The work includes contributions from scholars and practitioners who propose strategies for determining what works, why, and how in a complex field that has often seen itself as exceptional, resisting efforts to set realizable goals for—and implementing processes for achieving—assessment. Anchoring chapters by the editor lay out the groundwork for evaluation (types and purposes) and make a plea for building a “community of inquiry for public, shared, and cumulative learning.” Other contributions review the different contexts and modalities for evaluation, and different evaluative tools and frameworks applicable in these contexts—all in the interest of building knowledge from experience. Overall, the work contributes to clarity—conceptually and operationally—for an emerging field that is starting to look at itself, and indicates ways the field can build both problem-solving and theory-building research. It will be of interest to practitioners and scholars, as well as to students of social science methodology. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

• PrefaceIntroductionPart I: Taking StockChapter 1:A Refresher on Evaluation Tamra Pearson d’EstréeChapter 2:Peacebuilding Evaluation: Two Decades of EvolutionCheyanne Scharbatke-ChurchChapter 3:Challenges in Peacebuilding Evaluation: Voices From the FieldMohammed Abu-NimerChapter 4:Talking for the Sake of It, or Making a Difference? Measuring and Evaluating Track Two DiplomacyPeter JonesPart II: New DirectionsChapter 5:Scrambling after Moving Targets: Monitoring & Evaluation Applied to Adaptive Management Approaches in PeacebuildingPeter Woodrow & Isabella JeanChapter 6:Using Action Evaluation to Identify Shared Conceptions of Success: Towards Generating Islands of TheoryJay Rothman & Deborah SachareChapter 7:Everyday Peace Indicators: Renegotiating Rigor for Peacebuilding EvidencePamina Firchow & Zach TiltonChapter 8:Judging Peacebuilding: Attending to Values in EvaluationReina NeufeldtPart III: Increasing CapacitiesChapter 9:Reflective Practic