New trends in social science research indicate a major departure in the assess­ment of the role of the researcher or the investigator. The traditional role of the researcher as a detached and ‘neutral’ analyst, while it proved suitable to a cer­tain extent to describe the world as it exists, hardly equipped him to work for changing it. It is through participation in the sense of intervention that the researcher may learn the process through which a change is brought about. The general tendency to isolate the ‘content’ from the ‘process’ of change introduces the major distortions in the evaluation of any socio-economic pro­gramme with disproportionate emphasis on growth in comparison with equity. The participatory techniques in social science research demand a re-examination of the relationship between the researcher and the researched, the investigator and the investigated - put differently, the sub­ject and object of research. Very few social programmes in India offered scope to social scientists and social science research institutes to develop the parti­cipatory techniques of research. The National Adult Education Programme (N AEP) happens to be a major pro­gramme encouraging participatory research. Adult education programmes gene­rally have had very low credibility due to the low 'motivation of prospective lear­ners and irregular and indifferent func­tioning of adult education centres in the past. In the background of this credibi­lity gap, the allocation of Rs. 200 crores (Rs. 100 crores through the State sector and Rs. 100 crores through the Central sector) for the implementation of NAEP created serious apprehensions in the minds of many political leaders, administrators and media men. The Central Government was, therefore, _ rightly advised not to go in for rapid expansion of the adult education programme with­out ensuring proper preparation and arrangements for monitoring and concur­rent evaluation of the programme. Besides entrusting the Directorate of Adult Education with the responsibility of monitoring NAEP, several well-known social science research institutes were identified by the Government for evalua­tion of the projects undertaken by volun­tary agencies. The programme of external evalua­tion—more appropriately termed 'quick appraisal'—was initiated with the evaluative study conducted by the Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Studies, Ahmedabad, of the Adult Edu­cation programmes run by voluntary agencies in Gujarat. The book under review happens to be the report of the second study in a series of such studies conducted by the ...