The Missing Link: Processing Variation in Dialogical Evaluation

Abstract

This article is a comment on ‘Dialogue as a Democratizing Evaluation Method’ by Katherine Ryan and Lizanne DeStefano. Their insightful paper prompted us to reflect on several difficult issues at the core of the ‘dialogical paradigm’ of evaluation. Our reflections focus on four issues: (1) dialogue as a democratizing process, (2) representativeness and participation, (3) the missing link between variation and selection in dialogical evaluation, and (4) the role of the evaluator. Our main argument is that dialogical democracy is excellent for raising awareness and a rich variation of views and ideas, but it does not help in retaining that variation for subsequent policy processes. Research into dialogical and participatory democracy must pay more attention to this missing link. The paradox that needs to be addressed, we argue, is that variation can be retained only when dialogical evaluation also supports selection and condensation processes. The article concludes with an outline of the evaluator's role and tools in providing the missing link.