By Whose Standards? Reflections on Empow erment Evaluation and Grassroots Groups

Our recent work with grassroots organizations raises several questions about empowerment evaluation. Critics have focused on concerns such as lack of rigor and objectivity, but few have addressed deeper philosophical issues. One of these issues centers on evaluation standards. Empowered program stakeholders who set the research agenda in the empowerment model may have different ideas from those of the professional evaluator about the structure of inquiry and the use of evaluation. In some cases, the evaluator may question the ethics underlying their choices. One critical issue is