European Evaluation Society (EES): Call for Proposals open for 16th biennial conference: Evaluation for Vibrant Democracies (16-30 October 2026), Lille, France

This may be of interest to those working at the intersection of ‘systems’ and ‘evaluation’ and/or public policy: the Call for Abstracts for hashtag#EES2026 is now open: https://lnkd.in/dNieqnzz
Submissions are accepted until 31 March 2026. The conference takes place in Lille (France), 26-30 October 2026.

Do consider submitting an abstract to share relevant work with the evaluation community gathering there.

Since 2025, EES has been a member organisation in the IFSR, and relevant contributions from the ‘systems’ field to the conference are very welcome and desired! One of the main themes of the conference is “Systemic Learning: Complex societal challenges demand more than isolated interventions. Therefore, this conference will allow us to explore system-level approaches that drive transformational change, and how evaluators can navigate complexity while maintaining accountability and learning, which is critical to healthy democracies.”

Several accepted strands may align with your proposals, including one from EES’ Thematic Working Group on ‘systems approaches in evaluation’.

More information also here.

Go to ‘Call B’ to submit proposals.

It would be great to see many participants joining from the systems community, for further cross-fertilization between these two meta- and transdisciplines, who can mutually benefit from learning from and with each other, and join forces.


hashtag#EES

hashtag#EESTWG8

hashtag#systemicevaluation

Further selected references on ‘systemic evaluation’

The really interesting curation of links in the “collection of systems/complexity links regarding evaluation” https://stream.syscoi.com/2021/01/23/collection-of-systems-complexity-links-regarding-evaluation/
prompts me to add a few more (selected – not complete by any means!) references, if of interest:

Bamberger M, Vaessen J and Raimondo E (2016) Dealing with Complexity in Development Evaluation,
a Practical Approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Caffrey L and Munro E (2017) A systems approach to policy evaluation. Evaluation 23(4): 463–78.

Catwell L and Sheikh A (2009) Evaluating eHealth interventions: The need for continuous systemic
evaluation. PLoS Medicine 6(8): e1000126.

Duffy DN (2017) Evaluation and governing in the 21st century: Disciplinary measures, transformative
possibilities. In: Palgrave Studies in Science, Knowledge and Policy. London: Palgrave Macmillan
Pivot.

European Evaluation Society (EES) (2018) 13th European Evaluation Society Biennial Conference,
‘Evaluation for more resilient societies’, Thessaloniki, 1–5 October. Available at: http://www.ees2018.eu/ (accessed 5 January 2020).

Forss K, Marra M and Schwartz R (eds) (2011) Evaluating the Complex: Attribution, Contribution and
Beyond (Comparative Policy Evaluation Series 18). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

Gates E (2018) Towards valuing with critical systems heuristics. American Journal of Evaluation 39:
201–20.

Kusters C, et al (2019) Conference report: Monitoring and evaluation for inclusive and sustainable food
systems. Report WCDI-19-066, Wageningen Centre for Development Innovation, Wageningen
University & Research, Wageningen, 3–4 April. Available at: https://edepot.wur.nl/506604
(accessed 5 January 2020).

Mitchell, A (2017) Second-order learning in Developmental Evaluation: new methods for complex conditions. Springer, International Publishing. Kindle Edition. (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-3-319-99371-3)

Midgley G (2007) Systems thinking for evaluation. In: Williams B and Imam I (eds) Systems Concepts
in Evaluation, an Expert Anthology. Point Reyes, CA: American Evaluation Association, 11–34

Ofir Z, Singh G, Beauchamp E, et al. (2019) From monitoring goals to systems-informed evaluation:
Insights from SDG14. IEED Briefing, March. Available at: https://pubs.iied.org/17706IIED/
(accessed 5 January 2020).

Patton M (1994) Developmental evaluation. Evaluation Practice 15(3): 311–20.

Patton M (2011) Developmental Evaluation Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and
Use. New York: Guilford Press.

Patton M (2018) Principles-Focused Evaluation. London; New York: Guilford Press.

Patton M (2019) Blue marble evaluation. Available at: https://www.utilization-focusedevaluation.org/
blue-marble-evaluation
(accessed 5 January 2020).

Piirainen KA, Gonzalez RA and Bragge J (2012) A systemic evaluation framework for futures research.
Futures 44(5): 464–74.

Reynolds M (2015) (Breaking) The iron triangle of evaluation. IDS Bulletin 46: 71–86.

Reynolds M and Schwandt T (2017) Evaluation as public work: An ethos for professional evaluation
praxis. In: UK evaluation society annual conference: The use and usability of evaluation:
Demonstrating and improving the usefulness of evaluation, Evaluation Society, London, 10–11 May.

Reynolds M, Gates E, Hummelbrunner R, et al. (2016) Towards systemic evaluation. Systems Research
and Behavioral Science 33: 662–73.

Reynolds M, Fross K, Hummelbrunner R, et al. (2012) Complexity, systems thinking and evaluation
– An emerging relationship? Evaluation Connections Newsletter of the European Evaluation
Society, 7–9.

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (2019) Scaling solutions toward shifting systems initiative:
Assessing systems change: A funders’ workshop report. Available at: https://www.rockpa.org/wpcontent/
uploads/2019/10/Assessing-Systems-Change-A-Funders-Workshop-Report-Rockefeller-
Philanthropy-Advisors-August-2019.pdf
(accessed 5 January 2020).

Schmidt-Abbey, B, Reynolds, M and Ison, R (2020) Towards systemic evaluation in
turbulent times – Second-order practice shift. Evaluation . 26 (2): 205–226.

Schwandt T (2015) Reconstructing professional ethics and responsibility: Implications of critical systems
thinking. Evaluation 21(4): 462–6.

Schwandt T (2019) Post-normal evaluation? Evaluation 25(3): 317–29.

Schwandt T and Gates E (2016) What can evaluation do? An agenda for evaluation in service of an
equitable society. Evaluation for an Equitable Society: 67–81.

Stephens A, Lewis E and Reddy S (2018) Towards an inclusive systemic evaluation of the SDGs:
Gender, equality, environments and marginalised voices (GEMs). Evaluation 24(2): 220–36.

Wadsworth Y (1997) Everyday Evaluation on the Run, 2nd edn. Sydney, NSW, Australia: Allen &
Unwin.

Wadsworth Y (2010) Building in Research and Evaluation. Human Inquiry for Living Systems. Sydney,
NSW, Australia: Allen & Unwin.

Wadsworth Y (2016) Everyday Evaluation on the Run: The User-Friendly Introductory Guide to
Effective Evaluation, 3rd edn. Abingdon: Routledge

Williams B (2013) Three core concepts: Inter-relationships, perspectives, boundaries. In: Evaluation
connections: Newsletter of the European evaluation society, June 2013, 7–8.

Williams B and Hummelbrunner R (2009) Systems Concepts in Action, a Practitioner’s Toolkit.
Stanford, CA: Stanford Business Books.

Williams B and Imam I (eds) (2007) Systems Concepts in Evaluation, an Expert Anthology. Point Reyes,
CA: American Evaluation Association.