In this episode, Carolina and Vidhya explore the tension among learning from the past, meeting present needs, and imagining and building a future. We examine evaluation’s roots as a tool for capital and reflect on our roles within the professional/managerial class, where uncertainty feels “risky.” Whose interests do we serve? Could a solidarity economy provide evaluators with a safety net or fallback position to make collective demands—by organizing ourselves or joining movements that prioritize the working class?

In this episode, hosts Carolina De La Rosa Mateo and Vidhya Shanker ask, “why evaluation?” We wonder if evaluation can be a site of resistance against racial/gendered capitalism, considering that capital developed evaluation to support its interests and continues to control the means and ends of knowledge production. Can evaluators renounce capitalism and positivism to organize against exploitation alongside the working class? Can we refuse to take EEI, DEI, CRE, GEDI, CRT, etc. for granted and change the structure of the knowledge economy?

In this episode, we (hosts Vidhya Shanker and Carolina De La Rosa Mateo) introduce ourselves, share how our worlds came together, and discuss The May 13 Group. We talk about our personal histories inside and outside evaluation, the Minnesota IBPOC in Evaluation Community of Praxis, how The May 13 Group came to be, and what it could possibly become. We invite anyone who works in and around evaluation or other knowledge work (e.g., philanthropy, nonprofits, NGOs, government, academia) to take a listen and help craft the ecosystem!