Rezension: Seckelmann, Margit (2018): Evaluation und Recht. Strukturen, Prozesse und Legitimationsfragen staatlicher Wissensgewinnung durch (Wissenschafts-)Evaluationen

Abstract

"Evaluation and Law" deals with the "social construction of quality in science and the ways of coddling it legally" (Seckelmann, 2018, S. 20). Although clearly juridical, the study is also strongly interdisciplinary reflecting insights from sociology, political and administrative sciences and evaluation research. Between the constitutional guarantee of free research and the efforts to organise universities efficiently, evaluative procedures changed the university system significantly (projectification, complexity, etc.). From a legal perspective, these procedures need to be adequate for research, and simultaneously respect the limits set by the constitution in organisational and procedural terms. This requires public bodies to conceptualize evaluative procedures ex ante in the form of an evaluation legislation defining the purpose, procedure and potential use of evaluative procedures. The study is not only dealing with evaluation in a strict sense, but with different instruments of new public management. Specifically the visible tensions at the edge of disciplinary boundaries provoke interesting insights and questions.