The notions of indigenous knowledge and cultural philosophies are becoming ubiquitous in many social inquiries, and evaluation is no exception. Nonetheless, the pursuit to embed relevant indigenous philosophies in contemporary evaluation has yet to succeed. In this article, we discuss indigenous relational philosophies, approaches, and practices…

Background: Humanitarian engineering (HE) is rapidly emerging in universities and professional workplaces worldwide. In HE, socio-technical thinking is fundamental as HE projects exist at the intersection of engineering and sustainable community development. However, the literature still lacks an understanding of the key features of…

Offers a case study that examines the methodological problems of evaluating a community relations program in Northern Ireland. Recommends a quantitative and qualitative approach to evaluation and raises issues that must be addressed when evaluating community development programs. (Author/JOW)

The Crossroads Survey, an adaptation of the macrostructural accounting techniques, was employed for purposes of testing the community development theory that services are added to communities in the same sequence. Dividing services and amenities into 2 categories (commercial and public/professional), the Crossroads Survey was conducted in Clinton…

An internal learning system (ILS), created for a development organization operating savings/credit programs with poor women, is used for data collection, monitoring, and evaluation. The ILS is participatory, pictorial, decentralized, and flexible; it documents socioeconomic impact and supports action planning. (SK)

Argues that while past analyses of local decision-making processes have been valuable, methods used may not have been appropriate to obtain valid data on subjective impressions of community leadership structure. Suggests a methodological strategy using a cognitive mapping procedure. (Author/JOW)

In the early 1990s, a restructuring of the health services system of Alberta (Canada) amalgamated public health units and hospital districts into 17 Regional Health Authorities. Many of the regions have pursued community grant initiatives in addition to their regular funding, and it seemed that there would be value in comparing the experiences of…

Adapted the scoring matrix, a method used to facilitate community participation in planning and monitoring development projects, to a university course in participatory resource management. Suggests the matrix is an example of how discipline-specific tools can be adapted to serve the dual purposes of promoting experiential learning of…

Purpose: This paper demonstrates the need for the higher education sector to develop and implement scaleable, quantitative measures that evaluate community and establish organisational benchmarks in order to guide the development of future practices designed to enhance the student learning experience. Design/methodology/approach: Literature…

"International Programming Issues for Extension Education" (Rosson, Sanders) describes a survey of extension personnel identifying global competition and agriculture as a key issue. "Expanding Our Horizons Internationally" (Richardson, Woods) discusses North Carolina Extension's staff development on global issues. In…

Documenting the impact of 1978-79 Community Resource Development (CRD) projects, this national study presents data in response to a congressional mandate calling for assessment of the consequences and effectiveness of Community Resource Development projects. The report presents findings derived from questionnaires sent to 47 state CRD leaders, 120…

A 1979-1980 nation-wide study of 113 Community Resource Development (CRD) projects evaluated socio-economic impacts, as seen by CRD staff, state leaders, and knowledgeable citizens. Questionnaires were sent to the three groups to determine consequences of the programs in the categories of family income, community facilities and services, public…

Data were gathered from Community Resource Development (CRD) field staff and from knowledgeable citizens, to obtain multiple indicators of the impact of CRD projects on economic and noneconomic changes and to assess the degree to which special client/audiences had shared in positive and negative consequences resulting in part from the CRD program.…

Participatory adult education programs assist individuals to substitute interdependent, mutually beneficial relationships for unrewarding, dependent relationships. Indicators of changes in dependency, however, are absent or imprecise in evaluations of participatory projects. A study explored facets of dependency by relating practitioners'…

Given the current emphasis on the benefits of communication and information technologies (C&IT) for sustainable rural community development, effective evaluations of C&IT initiatives are increasingly important. This paper presents outcomes of a project that aimed to build capacities of people in two Australian rural communities to evaluate…