The logic of evaluation professionalism

This article draws on the sociological literature to (i) explore the intersection between evaluation and professionalism; (ii) identify the extent to which evaluation fulfills the main attributes of professionalism; (iii) apply logical models of professionalism to the practice of independent and self-evaluation; and (iv) speculate about the future of the discipline. It rests the case for evaluation professionalism on the imperative of occupational self-management without which specialized evaluation knowledge is highly vulnerable to capture by vested interests.