Abstract
It is a special feature of modern societies that we identify, plan, and carry out programs designed to improve our social systems. It is also our experience that the programs do not always produce their intended improvements. Often, it is difficult to decipher whether programs have any impact at all, so complex is the ongoing social system into which programs are introduced and so inadequate are our methodologies for determining impact. To overcome these problems, to help obtain valid empirical evidence about the effectiveness of new social programs, a branch of methodology termed societal experimentation was suggested by Campbell (1969). Common pseudonyms for societal experimentation are evaluation research (Suchman, 1967), social experiments, experimental policy research, and field experiments.
Revised version of a symposium address presented at the Annual Conference of the British Psychological Association, University of Exeter, Exeter, England, April, 1977. Financial support for this address was provided by the Carnegie Corporation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the National Institute of Education, the Spencer Foundation, and the Department of Education of the Irish Government. The views expressed are solely those of the author.
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Airasian, P.W. (1983). Societal Experimentation. In: Evaluation Models. Evaluation in Education and Human Services, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6669-7_9
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