Creating a Dialogue between the Concepts of Complexity Paradigms and the Pragmatic Approaches Proposed for Evaluating Complex Interventions

Abstract

First, I would like to thank the co-editors of this special issue for entrusting me with the task of presenting a critical overview of the subject of evaluation through the lens of my own experience. I will not offer here a critical analysis of the articles. Rather, I propose to create a dialogue between complexity paradigms and the pragmatic approaches and lessons presented in this special issue. From my evaluation practice, I believe it is possible to build bridges between paradigmatic propositions and pragmatic experiences with
complexity. We will see how the ideas of complexity paradigms accord with and support these reflections on the evaluation of complex interventions. To do this, I would like to invoke certain principles and concepts from two authors whose complexity paradigms of social systems have guided my own evaluative research practice: Edgar Morin (Hartz, 1993) and, more recently, Niklas Luhmann’s propositions about meaning-constitution in complex systems (Moeller, 2006).