MANY CONCEPTIONS OF EVALUATIVE RESEARCH ARE EMBEDDED IN GENERAL VIEWS OF PLANNING. SIGNIFICANT CHANGES, HOWEVER, ARE TAKING PLACE IN SOCIAL PLANNING THEORY. THESE CHANGES ARE REFLECTED IN THE REPUDIATION OF THE SOCIAL ENGINEERING MODEL AND IN AN INCREASED EMPHASIS ON DISTRIBUTIVE EQUITY AND SOCIETAL LEARNING MODELS. THESE NEWER APPROACHES HAVE IN COMMON AN APPRECIATION OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FUNCTIONAL AND SUBSTANTIVE RATIONALITY IN PLANNING. IN CONTRAST TO THE TECHNICAL NARROWNESS OF FUNCTIONAL RATIONALITY, SUBSTANTIVE RATIONALITY RESTS UPON INTELLIGENT INSIGHT INTO THE BEHAVIOR OF COMPLEX SYSTEMS AS A WHOLE. SUBSTANTIVE RATIONALITY IS CONCERNED WITH CONSEQUENCES OF ACTION AS MUCH AS WITH MEANS. IT IS POLITICAL RATHER THAN TECHNICAL AND MAKES INNOVATIVE PLANNING POSSIBLE. SOCIAL PLANNING INVOLVES VALUE JUDGMENTS, AND THIS MUST BE RECOGNIZED WHEN CONSIDERING EVALUATIVE RESEARCH AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE. SYSTEMIC PERSPECTIVISM IS PROPOSED AS AN EVALUATIVE RESEARCH APPROACH THAT TAKES INTO ACCOUNT THE LACK OF EXPERIMENTAL CONTROLS IN SOME CASES, AVOIDS CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS, AND ASSUMES A MORE POLITICALLY SOPHISTICATED STANCE WITH RESPECT TO CRITERIA SELECTION THAN THE TECHNICAL SYSTEMS ANALYSIS APPROACH TO SOCIAL PLANNING. THE METHOD OF SYSTEMIC PERSPECTIVISM MAY BE ABLE TO PROVIDE A MEANS OF COMBINING ADVANTAGES OF GENERAL SYSTEMS THEORY WITH A PERSPECTIVISTIC VIEW OF OBJECTIVITY, ALLOWING FOR TRANSACTIVE PLANNING THAT INVOLVES THE PUBLIC. REFERENCES ARE CITED. (DEP)