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“This book arrives at exactly the right moment. Where the first edition focused on evaluating social innovation, the second edition shows how DE is more broadly relevant for any project, program, policy, or organization operating in our turbulent world. The new ADAPT framework will serve both first-time readers and experienced practitioners returning to it throughout an evaluation. Patton and Campbell-Patton bring together three decades of DE practice with insights from new practices in evaluation, public policy, and management. New ways of doing evaluation are urgently needed to support organizations responding to compound, cascading global crises—this book delivers them.”

—Patricia J. Rogers, PhD, independent consultant and former Professor of Public Sector Evaluation, RMIT University, Australia


“Since the publication of the first edition, Patton and Campbell-Patton have continued to critically reevaluate and refine DE through the many social, political, economic, and legal changes that have occurred. The second edition's intentional inclusion of culturally responsive, Indigenous, and equity practices using a DE lens offers the field of evaluation new ways to consider how allies can meaningfully contribute to a broader conversation and academic discourse. More in evaluation should be having this conversation. Developmental evaluation gives us another option that is untethered to business-as-usual in the field of evaluation and offers us a rooted and realistic way to grow, unlearn, and relearn through evaluation and as evaluators. DE offers a pathway into uncovering, understanding, and addressing complexity, unknowns, turbulent times, trauma, and destruction on a systemic and global level for humans and the earth that can advance healing and transformation efforts through evaluation.”

—Nicole Bowman, PhD, (Lunaape/Mohican), President, Bowman Performance Consulting; Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison


“This second edition is a magnum opus that expands the use of DE beyond innovation for adaptive resilience to continuous change. The authors draw on a vast range of interdisciplinary, intercultural, and intersectoral theory and practice. The advances in DE presented here will resonate with evaluation professionals, users, and funders who seek to co-create practice aligned with the ADAPT framework, in the service of social and ecological transformation.”

—Andrealisa Belzer, CE, MA, President, International Evaluation Academy


“This book is ideal for graduate courses in evaluation, public policy, organizational development, and the applied social sciences, as well as for executive education and evaluation professional development training. I plan to use the second edition to help students and practitioners develop the mindset and skills needed to design, adapt, and use evaluation in real time in complex, dynamic environments. The second edition stands out for its integration of contemporary advances in complexity science, systems thinking, and emergent strategy, and for its rich, practice-based examples. It offers exceptional conceptual clarity paired with highly actionable guidance.”

—Stewart I. Donaldson, PhD, Distinguished University Professor, Claremont Graduate University; Executive Director, Claremont Evaluation Center and The Evaluators' Institute

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About the Authors

Michael Quinn Patton, PhD, is an independent consultant who has been conducting program evaluations since the 1970s. Based in Minnesota, he was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota for 18 years and is a former president of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). Dr. Patton is author of more than a dozen books on evaluation. He is a recipient of the Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Evaluation Practice Award, the Paul F. Lazarsfeld Evaluation Theory Award, and the Research on Evaluation Award, all from AEA. He has also received the Lester F. Ward Distinguished Contribution to Applied and Clinical Sociology Award from the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology. In 2021, Dr. Patton received the first Transformative Evaluator Award from EvalYouth. He is an active speaker, trainer, and workshop presenter who has conducted applied research and evaluation on a broad range of issues and has worked with organizations and programs at the international, national, state, provincial, and local levels.

• Author's website
• All titles by Michael Quinn Patton

Charmagne Campbell-Patton, MA, is a second-generation evaluator and twelfth-generation European settler based in Minneapolis. Since the early 2000s, her professional experience spans program design, implementation, and evaluation work across a range of fields, including youth engagement, education, criminal and juvenile justice, and philanthropy. Ms. Campbell-Patton specializes in qualitative research methods and utilization-focused developmental evaluation.

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Audience

Instructors and graduate students in education, psychology, sociology, management, social work, nursing, and public policy; applied researchers who do evaluations.

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Course Use

Serves as a supplemental text in graduate-level courses in evaluation or social research methods.

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Previous editions published by Guilford:

First Edition, © 2011
ISBN: 9781606238721

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New to this edition:

• Insights, wisdom, and data from over 15 years of large-scale implementation and DE training around the world.
• New and expanded topics—the intensifying climate crisis; evaluation lessons learned from COVID-19; emerging applications of AI; developments in data visualization, systems mapping, and theories of transformation; and more.
• New chapter organization highlighting each element of ADAPT.
• Every chapter concludes with “Tips and Traps”—what to watch for and what to avoid.