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Abstract:
Evaluating sustainable development is becoming increasingly important in policy making, evaluation practice and the scientific world in general. However, at present, there is neither a generally accepted set of measures and evaluation methods, nor specific standards to be met. Sustainable Development in Europe addresses these issues and presents an important and concise analysis of state-of-the-art sustainable development evaluation policies, programmes and projects currently at work in Europe.
The aim of this book is not to offer an all-encompassing overview of these efforts, but to raise the most significant issues involved in the planning and implementation of an evaluation project at international, national, regional and local levels. These include understanding sustainable development, the aims of the evaluation, the appropriate spatial or administrative level, and the limits of the particular system analysed. The principal topic areas for evaluators focused upon in this volume are concepts, evaluation methods and their applications. Each topic is accompanied by an illustrative example of a cutting-edge evaluation study indicating how best to apply the theoretically derived approaches in a practical way.
In offering a common basis for the further development of research and applications regarding sustainability evaluations, this study will be of great interest to researchers and scholars at many levels of environmental, European, public sector and public policy studies. Evaluators will find methodological approaches and applied tools for their work. Policy makers will find the analysis of the most effective evaluation methodologies vitally useful, and NGOs and NPOs will also find that this book assists them in establishing evaluation as a learning tool.
Contents:
1. Evaluation of Sustainable Development in Europe: Context and Introduction - Eckhard Störmer and Uwe Schubert
Part I: Sustainable Development: Making the Concept Operational for Evaluation
2. Evaluation of Sustainable Development: A Social Science Approach - Wolf
3. Systems of Reference for Evaluation of Sustainable Development: Diversity and Harmonization - Markus Langer and Aloisia Predota
4. An Evaluation Framework for Sustainable Development in Multi-level Government - Thiemo W. Eser
Part II: Methods of Evaluating SD
II.1: Methods and Tools: Multi-Regional and National Context
5. Strategic Environmental Assessment and Sustainability Impact Assessment: Two Participatory Assessment Tools for Sustainability - Kerstin Arbter
6. Applications of Sustainability Evaluation at the National Strategic Policy Level - Clive George
7. Sustainability in Practice: A Case-Study on the Reorientation of Common Agricultural Policy in Austria - Erwin Schmid, Franz Sinabell and Markus F. Hofreither
II.2: Methods and Tools: Regional and Local Context
8. An Evaluation Framework of Quality Management of Projects for Regional Sustainable Development - Alain Thierstein and Manfred Walser
9. A Thematic Evaluation of the Contribution of Structural Funds to Sustainable Development: Methods and Lessons -
James Medhurst
10. Sustainable Development Oriented Local Projects: Making the Game Worth Playing - Marc Münster, Tourane Corbière-Nicollier and Peter Knoepfel
11. Local Authorities' Self-Assessment of Local Agenda 21 (LASALA) - Naomi Luhde-Thompson
12. Peer Review for Cities: Experiences from the PRESUD Project - Jan Dictus
II.3: Methods and Tools: Focus on Individual Institutions
13. Sustainability of Foreign Aid: Evaluating Governance-Related Technical Assistance Projects for Civil Servants in Central and Eastern Europe - György Hajnal
14. How to Develop a Simple Self-Evaluation Methodology for Research Projects and Teams - Gudrun Lettmayer and Ingrid Kaltenegger
Part III: National Evaluation Culture
III.1: State of the Art in European Countries
15. Institutionalized Evaluations of Sustainable Development in Belgium: The Future of a Federal Sustainability Impact Assessment Process - Tom Bauler
16. Tracing the Evaluation of Sustainable Development in Italy - Alessandro Bonifazi, Antonio Nicoletti and Carmelo M. Torre
17. Sustainable Development and Evaluation of Public Policies in France - Benoît Simon
18. Evaluation of Sustainable Development in Finland - Janis Aizsalnieks
19. The Evaluative Aspects of Sustainability in Rural Development Programmes in Poland - Pawel Bryla
III.2: State of the Art in Another Industrialized Country
20. A Snapshot Depicting Mixed Signals on the State of the Art of Evaluating Sustainable Development in the USA - Gerlinde Struhkamp
21. Outlook: Future Research Questions and Policy Issues - André Martinuzzi, Uwe Schubert and Eckhard Störmer
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