We live in an age where evaluation is omnipresent. However, as a social practice, it has become hard to distinguish from auditing, inspection, quality assurance and other means of social control. As a result, the evaluation occupation is now widely viewed as intrusive and burdensome – a self-serving commercial enterprise. Yet, evaluation at its creation was conceived (or perhaps imagined) as a vocation devoted to the public good. This article probes the root causes of the spreading disenchantment; puts Weber’s logic of social action to work; and puts his rationalities concepts to work to explore the ethical and professional challenges currently faced by the evaluation community.

我们生活在一个评价无处不在的时代。然而，作为一种社会实践，它已经很难与审计、检查、质量保证等社会控制手段区分开来。因此，评估职业现在被广泛认为是侵入性和繁重的——一种自私的商业企业。然而，评估在其创建时被设想（或可能被想象）为致力于公共利益的职业。本文探讨祛魅蔓延的根源；将韦伯的社会行动逻辑付诸实践；并将他的理性概念用于探索评估界目前面临的道德和专业挑战。