Realist Synthesis .docVIP

Realist Synthesis: Supplementary reading 5: The Promise of ‘Realist Synthesis’  Evidence Based Policy: II. The Promise of ‘Realist Synthesis’ Ray Pawson ESRC Centre for Evidence Based Policy Queen Mary University of London r.d.pawson@leeds.ac.uk  Submitted to Evaluation: May 2001. Revised October 2001 Evidence Based Policy: II. The Promise of ‘Realist Synthesis’ Abstract Evaluation research is tortured by time constraints. The policy cycle revolves quicker than the research cycle, with the result that ‘real time’ evaluations often have little influence on policy making. As a result, the quest for Evidence Based Policy (EBP) has turned increasingly to systematic reviews of the results of previous inquires in the relevant policy domain. However, this shifting of the temporal frame for evaluation is in itself no guarantee of success. Evidence, whether new or old, never speaks for itself. Accordingly, there is debate about the best strategy of marshalling bygone research results into the policy process. In the first part of this paper (published in the previous edition of the journal) a critical review of the existing EBP strategies was conducted. This companion paper considers the merits of a new methodology for systematic reviews, namely – ‘Realist Synthesis’. Key words: Evidence Based Policy, Realism, Systematic Review, Incentives Introduction The purpose of this paper is to sketch out a fresh approach to EBP, which I will call ‘realist synthesis’. Though realist inquiry has a long pedigree in social science (Keat and Urry, 1975) and philosophy (Bhaskar, 1979), it is a relatively new strategy in evaluation research, which has only recently gained a foothold on both sides of the Atlantic (Pawson and Tilley, 1997; Henry, Mark and Julnes, 1998). The realist approach is not an evaluation technique as such, but a framework for the whole enterprise. It is being developed to encompass programmes of all types (local to trans-n