What Is Realist Evaluation?

What Is Realist Evaluation?

by Dr Ana Manzano, Associate Professor in Public Policy, School of Sociology & Social Policy

Realist evaluation belongs to the family of theory-driven evaluation approaches. Popularised at the end of the 20th century by British social scientists Prof. Ray Pawson and Prof. Nick Tilley, the realist evaluation approach aims to answer a complex evaluation question: “‘what works, for whom, under what circumstances and why?”. In 2021, realist evaluation was one the key recommended evaluation approaches in the updated Medical Research Council guidance framework for developing and evaluating complex interventions. In this framework, evaluation is defined as going beyond asking whether interventions work, to a broader range of questions including, theorising how they work, taking into account the dynamic contexts of real-world implementations. In this seminar, Dr Ana Manzano, who was a co-investigator in the renowned RAMESES II study (NIHR) that developed the widely cited reporting standards for conducting realist evaluations, will examine how this approach differs from experimental and quasi-experimental approaches, commonly used to understand complex causal relationships between intended and unintended outcomes in complex social phenomena, interventions, programmes and public policies.