Episode 15 - Planning Impact Together: Katja Mayer on Participatory Evaluation

REvaluation Podcast

Katja Mayer gives fascinating insights into participatory methods for evaluation, with a particular focus on evaluating science projects that themselves have participatory elements. We learn that it is a challenge for scientists to suddenly be moderators of a complex debate and mediators of group dynamics. But we also learn how this can be tackled and how a participatory process can be democratising rather than exploiting. Also, participation does not mean to include everybody, but to get representation right for the purpose of the project at stake.

With a fundamental understanding that evaluation has to be part of every research project and not something that is done by auditors afterwards, Katja invites planning, designing and creating impact together from scratch. This is how it is a co-evaluative journey throughout the research process and citizens will not feel evaluated themselves, but get a tool at hand to be masters of their own impact.

Our focus episodes on participatory methods are drawing from the experience we made in the special issue #54 of the fteval Journal. The next episode 16 presents an interview with Emilio Velis with an approach to open innovation.

Links

• Special Issue of the fteval Journal:If you are interested in receiving a printed version of the special issue, please feel free to drop us a note! podcast [at] fteval.at
• Katja Mayer
• Whitepaper on Co-evaluation of Citizen Social Science
• CoACT Project: Co­designing Citizen Social Science for Collective Action
• Paper about the term "Citizen" in Citizen Science
• Antonella Passani, T6
• ACTION Project: Participatory science toolkit against pollution
• Impetus Project: Impetus for Citizen Science
• The “OIS Zam” conference series as a good practice example for an “arena” for citizens, researchers and funders
• Episode 16 on open innovation: Interview with Emilio Velis

This episode was made possible with the kind support of the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology. Thank you!

Music: Urbana-Metronica (wooh-yeah mix) (ft. Morusque, Jeris, CSoul, Alex Beroza) by spinningmerkaba http://ccmixter.org/people/jlbrock44; SouljaUnit Remix of DeadRobot Music’s Surfy via https://freesound.org/people/SouljaUnit/sounds/640175/

podcast(at)fteval.at - twitter.com/fteval - www.fteval.at

Capitoli

1. Intro & Welcome (00:00:00)

2. Who is Katja Mayer? (00:01:45)

3. Why participation? (00:04:53)

4. Why is there a gap in literature for participatory evaluation for participatory science? (00:11:01)

5. Are citizens keen on doing evaluation tasks? (00:14:08)

6. The trick is to plan and create impact together. (00:16:41)

7. What differences are there when participatory methods are applied in science or in evaluation? (00:19:07)

8. Introduction to the special issue of the fteval Journal on participation (00:26:10)

9. Antonella Passani on co-creating impact dimensions (00:31:20)

10. When is participation demokratising and when is it exploitation? (00:41:29)

11. Teaser for Episode 16 with Emilio Velis (00:48:39)

12. What skills do we need to get participation right? (00:50:56)

13. The need for an "arena" for stakeholders of participatory processes to exchange and cultivate learning (00:57:22)

14. Outro (00:58:55)