Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

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DPPG 8642

Taking Measure of Unmeasurable

Many of the problems that students at MIIS want to work on are structural, complex (meaning non-linear), have long success horizons (i.e., no 1-5 year project can truly solve them), and are only partially amenable to standard approaches and methodologies for assessing impact. Indeed, the difficulty of “measuring” structural progress in things like racial, economic, gender, and climate justice incentivizes projects and programs with short time spans, highly quantified “outputs” and “outcomes” which can be successful during their life spans but frequently fail to produce long-term impacts. Our class will a) unpack the reasons for a reliance on project modalities in social development work (spoiler: it’s not because donors or public officials or NGO leaders are stupid), and b) introduce learners – at a conceptual level – to 8 approaches to assessing impact in complex, nonlinear, emergent contexts, approaches that can help us avoid “dumbing down” projects to measuring that which can be quantified, or counted.
Subject:
Development Practice & Policy
Department:
Development Practice & Policy
Division:
Intl Policy & Management
Requirements Fulfilled:

Sections in Spring 2024 - MIIS, MIIS Winter/J Term only

Spring 2024 - MIIS

DPPG8642A-S24 Lecture (Glenzer)