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Indigenous Evaluation

Distinguishing the Formal and Informal Organizational Structures of Youth Programs

Stanford University

Tamar Rapoport

Hebrew University

Evaluators could more clearly contrast the bureaucratic structures typifying many inter ventions against the indigenous social rules that pattern local action by staffs or clients. Methodological critiques have thoroughly contested strict experimental designs that ignore political complexities and inevitable local adaptations of centrally designed organi zational change. Formative schools of evaluation have further illuminated how persistent local behaviors often subvert the earnest intentions of program sponsors. This article argues that evaluators must go further in mapping how clients' indigenous social struc tures complement or conflict with the centralized rational structure ofprogram reforms. Evaluation of youth programs in Israel and the United States exemplifies how the respective social rules of program sponsor versus clients may be mutually supportive or sharply clash. The implications for evaluation methodology and the design of social programs are discussed.

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