A Retreat from the Ideal: Reflections on a Frustrated Attempt to Study a Social Phenomenon the Natural Science Way

Abstract

To provide Filipino social scientists an opportunity to design their own methodology for the analysis of socioeconomic impacts of a spectrum of governmental programs, the Economic and Social Impact Analysis/ Women in Development program has been instituted. This paper revisits this project and exposes what the author think as unexamined theories behind the usually accepted assumptions of the classic evaluation design and the casual model it implies. This is in the hope of better understanding not only of the difference between social and natural sciences but also of the linkage between methodology and theory as well.