Pawson, Ray

Ph.D., University of Lancaster; B.A., University of Essex.

Pawson is a sociologist. All of his published work is narrowly methodological, although the coverage is prolix (pure and applied, practical and philosophical, quantitative and qualitative, micro and macro, contemporaneous and historical). The best-known work from his early period is A Measure for Measures: A Manifesto for Empirical Sociology (1989). He entered evaluation, quite by accident, when he was asked to research the effectiveness of a prisoner education program. He has been an inmate (of evaluation, not prison) ever since.

His primary contribution to evaluation is Realistic Evaluation (with Nick Tilley). “Realism,” in the United Kingdom, at least, constitutes the prime methodological backbone of many forms of social research, and the book is an attempt to spread the word to evaluators. Mark, Henry, and Julnes are prominent members of the evaluation community caught under the same spell. Unaccountably, there are many nonbelievers. Pawson's current work on realism in evidence-based policy may be found at http://www.evidencenetwork.org.

Among his main influences are the following: the sociologist R. K. Merton—on the concept of “middle range theory,” an idea whose time is still to come in evaluation; R. Bhaskar (first two books only) and Rom Harré—on the development of realist philosophy; the poet William Carlos Williams—for a salutary line for all evaluators about “the rare occurrence of the expected”; and finally, a certain prisoner—for the thought that evaluators (of prison programs) are lower even than prison guards.

Pawson has been active in the United Kingdom and European Evaluation Societies. With this in mind, he is thinking deeply about founding the English English in Evaluation Campaign (EEEC). Manifesto examples would include such items as program = program, tidbits = tidbits, gotten = no such word, and so on.