Abstract
Starting with the Australian Evaluation Society International Conference 2024 theme of ‘wayfinding’, the article reflects on how evaluators navigate time as well as space, with particular reference to how they incorporate qualitative approaches to ‘futures thinking’ into their evaluative practice. The article takes a reflexive case study approach, drawing on a simple model of evaluative practice to review the role of futures thinking in evaluation of doctoral research projects, impact investments, social assistance, and development studies as an academic field. The article focuses particularly on the role of ‘backcasting’, as well as deliberative processes and the causal mapping of narrative claims linking future possibilities to current thinking and activities.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 9-22 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Evaluation Journal of Australasia |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 5 Dec 2024 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Mar 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© The Author(s) 2024.
Funding
This article is an edited version of a keynote address delivered to the Australian Evaluation Society\u2019s International Evaluation Conference in Melbourne on 18 September 2024. I am grateful to the AES for the invitation, and for the financial support that enabled me to participate in the conference. I am also grateful to the 25 anonymous participants who submitted questions after the talk, as well as to Maya Cordeiro, Rick Davis, Shaun Finnetty, John Guenther, and Fiona Remnant for comments on earlier drafts.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| AES Corporation |
Keywords
- anticipation
- backcasting
- causal mapping
- development studies
- evaluation
- future studies
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Development
- Sociology and Political Science