Method evidence record

Realist Evaluation

Realist evaluation is a theory-driven approach to evaluating programs and policies that asks not simply 'does it work?' but 'what works, for whom, in what circumstances, and why?'. Developed by Ray Pawson and Nick Tilley in their 1997 book Realistic Evaluation, it treats interventions as theories incarnate: programs offer resources or opportunities that trigger underlying mechanisms of reasoning and response in participants, and those mechanisms only fire in particular contexts. The unit of analysis is the Context-Mechanism-Outcome (CMO) configuration, and the goal is to build and refine middle-range theory that explains differential outcomes across settings.

Sources recorded, not reviewed

Source record

Citations copied verbatim from the method’s source record. No claim-level verification is inferred from them.

Realist Evaluation of Programs and Policies

Taxonomic method record · process-pipeline / public-policy

Pawson, R., & Tilley, N. (1997). Realistic Evaluation. London: SAGE Publications. · ISBN 9780761950097
Pawson, R. (2006). Evidence-Based Policy: A Realist Perspective. London: SAGE Publications. · ISBN 9781412910606

Open full method

Curated claims

Claims persisted in the evidence ledger, each with its own assessment.

No curated claims yet

This view does not invent a claim assessment when the ledger has none.

Related methods

Generated from the method graph and shown as machine-suggested relations — no evidence claim is inferred.

Taxonomic bucketContribution Analysismachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.Taxonomic bucketProcess Evaluationmachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.Same method familyRealist Synthesismachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.Taxonomic bucketTheory of Change Evaluationmachine-suggested · Relational suggestion, not evidence.