Empowerment Evaluation in the Digital Villages: Hewlett-Packard's $15 Million Race Toward Social Justice

 Its official!  The new book is out.

Empowerment Evaluation in the Digital Villages:  

Hewlett-Packard's $15 Million Race Toward Social Justice

Stanford University Press formally announced the publication of Dr. Fetterman's new empowerment evaluation book.  They held a "chat with the author" session at the American Evaluation Association annual meeting to introduce it to the public.

The book is about a large-scale comprehensive community initiative.  The initiate was designed to bridge the digital divide in communities of color.  Empowerment evaluation, a self-assessment approach to monitoring and evaluation, was the engine selected to drive the initiative.

Description

Empowerment Evaluation in the Digital Villages analyzes a $15 million community change initiative designed to bridge the digital divide in East Palo Alto, East Baltimore, and San Diego. Involving a partnership between Hewlett-Packard, Stanford University, and three ethnically diverse communities, this initiative enabled its constituencies to build their own technology-oriented businesses, improve their education systems, and improve their economic health. While examining this large-scale, multi-site case, Fetterman highlights the potential for empowerment evaluation to build local capacity and sustain improvements within communities. He provides deep insights into key steps in empowerment evaluation by exploring the way that each of these phases took place in the digital villages. Additionally, the text provides evaluators with real-world stories and practical advice from the front lines. The Digital Village case also demonstrates the social value of combining corporate philanthropy, academic prowess, and community empowerment—highlighting the role of evaluation in this process.

Reviews

This book makes a significant contribution to the empowerment evaluation literature. It provides detailed cases of empowerment evaluation in action that will help practitioners to understand implementation issues, challenges, and the benefits of using this evaluative approach."—Stewart I. Donaldson, Claremont Graduate University, author of Program Theory-Driven Evaluation Scienceand Coeditor of What Counts as Credible Evidence in Applied Research and Evaluation Practice?

"Fetterman presents both positives and pitfalls to stress the lessons learned that had a positive impact on the project outcomes and stakeholders. While each evaluation context is different, the work practices presented in this book will help other evaluators to understand what is possible when they are working in a participatory paradigm."—Lennise Baptiste, M&E Specialist, Caribbean Health Research Council

Author

David M. Fetterman is President and CEO of Fetterman & Associates, an international evaluation consulting firm. He is the Director of the Arkansas Evaluation Center at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff . Over 25 years of service, he held positions in Stanford University's administration, School of Education, and School of Medicine. Dr. Fetterman is the past-president of the American Evaluation Association and a recipient of the association's highest honors in theory and practice.  His recent books include Empowerment Evaluation Principles in Practice and Ethnography: Step by Step, 3rd Edition. To learn more about Dr. Fetterman, visit his website: www.davidfetterman.com.

For a view of the first chapter see the Stanford University Press catalog on the web.