A Look at Power Issues in Collaborative Program Evaluations Under Michel Foucault´s Conception of Power-Knowledge

Abstract

Power has always been an element of the program evaluation field, however, it has traditionally been attributed a negative connotation. With that in mind, power is seen as a force possessed to some extent by different stakeholders that can be imposed over others, and by which certain views, ideas, and decisions can be adopted. Given that program evaluation has a political character in which power is always present, we seek to explore a different notion of this concept. In this paper, we intend to take advantage of Michel Foucault's ideas to explore power in the program evaluation field. We illustrate the introduction of these concepts in collaborative evaluations and in doing so, we also explore power as well as power-knowledge relations, adopting a transformative perspective on power. The introduction of these concepts in collaborative evaluation is useful in illustrating how they can be used in non-collaborative evaluations.

The Construction of Chinese Metropolitan Area from the Perspective of Politics of Scale: A Case Study of Nanjing Metropolitan Area, China

“…It is important to emphasize that the concept of "power" referred to in this study comes from Foucault's perspective. According to Foucault, power is a complex network of relations that operates in a specific space [19], and multiple subjects interact with each other in a wide range of ways [20]. This coincides with the construction history of CMAs, where the same decentralized power interaction exists in the process of their spatial construction, forming a network of horizontal and vertical power relations.…”