Evaluating commodification and commodifying evaluation

Abstract

The article considers the evaluation of commodified services and the commodification of evaluations. The former distinguishes between evaluating a decision on whether to commodify a service and evaluations of commodified services. The latter explores the implications of commodifying evaluations using Weiss’ models of research use. Six themes are identified: how well the models reflect policy-making and evaluation practice; the role assigned to politics in policy evaluations; the importance of agenda setting and power in determining who and what gets evaluated; the legitimacy of the evaluations; the degree of accountability of the evaluator; and the nature of the evaluation output.