Abstract
The text explores and organizes ideas on trends in the evaluation of social policies and programs. It starts with the presentation of the first three stages of the theory of social evaluation (Shadish, COOK and LEVINTON, 1995): (1) Application of rigorous scientific methods, (2) Study of factors influencing the use of evaluation by decision makers; (3) Summary of previous stages and analysis of its strengths and weaknesses. In continuation, it presents the fourth generation of theories whose basis is the interpretive paradigm (Guba and Lincoln, 1989). It points out that qualitative research, over time, gains space in the universe of social research to recognize the influence of interpersonal relations and values of the people involved. It concludes discussing the complementarity of quantitative and qualitative methods.
Keywords
Social evaluation; Policies and social programs; Qualitative research; Interpretative paradigm