TITLE:
Evaluational Brainstorming
AUTHORS:
Claudio Bezzi
KEYWORDS:
Brainstorming, Participate Evaluation, Social Research, Research Techniques
JOURNAL NAME:
Sociology Mind,
Vol.1 No.4,
October
14,
2011
ABSTRACT: Among the evaluation techniques based upon group queries (e.g. focus group), brainstorming does not enjoy particular consideration. This might be the result of its origin and development within organizational and managerial domains, traditionally focused more on “idea production” (and problem solving) than on idea analysis within the context of evaluational and social research. This paper presents a development of classical brainstorming, which is quite useful to evaluation, where the traditional idea-producing step is followed by group analysis and exploration of the shared evaluand-specific semantic space. This evaluational brainstorming is the result of a shared understanding of the evaluand by different stakeholders, who can now ascertain their goals and draw cognitive maps to guide subsequent methodological choices and data gathering requirements.