Evaluation and case study research. An assessment of social infrastructure in the case of Palermo

The focus of the analysis is the practical value that the theory can assume in the Case Study Research, when it is used for evaluative purposes. Analyzing the ways in which a project of evaluative research commissioned by Fondazione Con il Sud (FCS) was conducted to evaluate the impact generated by its activities in three territories, we will try to highlight how a careful analysis of the theory of change , in its two different components: program theory and implementation theory (Weiss, 2007), together with the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods (mixed method) and the use of the positive thinking evaluative approach (Stame & Lo Presti, 2015) has contributed to widening the understanding of the reality under investigation (generating new theory) favoring a double-loop learning (Stame, 2016).