Centre for Humanities Engaging Science and Society

CHESS Working Paper Series

(Online) ISSN 2053-2660

Working Paper	Author(s)	PDF
Can I make this policy work here? Better theories of change and better evidence management for better policy design, better policy prediction Illustrated with a South African HIV/AIDs policy intervention CHESS Working Paper No. 2026-01 February 2026	Nancy Cartwright (Durham University), Brendan Kelters (Durham University), Eileen Munro (London School of Economics), Likhwa Ncube (University of Johannesburg) and John Pemberton (Durham University)	CWP 2026 01
Scientific collaboration: the very idea CHESS Working Paper No. 2025-02 November 2025	Eleonora Montuschi (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)	CWP 2025-02
Can I make this policy work here? Using evidence for better policy design, prediction and evaluation CHESS Working Paper No. 2025-01 Original: March 2025 Revised: September 2025	Nancy Cartwright (Durham University), Brendan Kelters (Durham University), Eileen Munro (London School of Economics) and John Pemberton (Durham University)	CHESS Working Paper No. 2025-01 CWP 2025-01 revised in Feb 2026
How to trust the experts without being one of them? CHESS Working Paper No. 2023-02 September 2023	Eleonora Montuschi (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)	CHESS Working Paper - Montuschi
Modelling Objectively CHESS Working Paper No. 2023-01 February 2023	Nancy Cartwright (Durham University and University of California, San Diego) and Faron Ray (University of California, San Diego)	CHESS Working Paper No. 2023-01
Not for profit, but for use: is philosophy good for practice? CHESS Working Paper No. 2020-05 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] December 2020	Eleonora Montuschi, Ca' Foscari University	Not for profit, but for use: is philosophy good for practice?
Causality and its implications for Theories of Change and evaluations of complex systems CHESS Working Paper No. 2020-04 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] December 2020	Eileen Munro, London School of Economics and Political Science	CWP_2020_04
Using Middle-Level Theory to Improve Programme and Evaluation Design CHESS Working Paper No. 2020-03 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] September 2020	Nancy Cartwright, Durham University	CWP_2020_03
Making predictions of programme success more reliable CHESS Working Paper No. 2020-02 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] September 2020	Nancy Cartwright (Durham University), Lucy Charlton, Matt Juden (University of London), Tamlyn Munslow (Durham University) and Richard Beadon Williams (Durham University)	CWP_2020_02
Causal processes – a social policy example CHESS Working Paper No. 2020-01 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] August 2020	Nancy Cartwright, Durham University and UCSD and John Pemberton, London School of Economics	CWP_2020_01
Theory and Evidence in Economics CHESS Working Paper No. 2019-06 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] July 2019	Julian Reiss, Durham University	CWP_2019_06
What Are the Drivers of Induction? Towards a Material Theory+ CHESS Working Paper No. 2019-05 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] July 2019	Julian Reiss, Durham University	CWP_2019_05
For whom does ‘what works’ work? The political economy of evidence-based education CHESS Working Paper No. 2019-04 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] April 2019	Nick Cowen, New York University School of Law	CWP_2019_04
Predictive analytics in child protection CHESS Working Paper No. 2019-03 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] April 2019	Eileen Munro, Durham University and LSE	CWP_2019_03
Street-level Theories of Change: Adapting the Medical Model of Evidence-based Practice for Policing CHESS Working Paper No. 2019-02 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] February 2019	Nick Cowen, New York University School of Law and Nancy Cartwright, Durham University and UCSD	CWP_2019_02
Objectivity in Science and Law: A Shared Rescue Strategy CHESS Working Paper No. 2019-01 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] February 2019	Matt Burch, University of Essex and Katherine Furman, University College Cork	CWP_2019_01
Mechanisms, ceteris paribus laws and covering-law explanation CHESS Working Paper No. 2018-04 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] October 2018	Nancy Cartwright, Durham University and UCSD, John Pemberton, London School of Economics and Sarah Wieten, Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics	CWP_2018_04
Trade-offs between Epistemic and Moral Values in Evidence-Based Policy CHESS Working Paper No. 2018-03 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] March 2018	Donal Khosrowi, Durham University	CHESSK4UWP_2018_03
A Technical Overview of the Evidence Framework Approach: Practical Ways of Thinking about Evidence CHESS Working Paper No. 2018-02 March 2018	Paul Pearce, Defence Science and Technology Laboratory UK	CHESSWP_2018_02
Constructed Objectivity and Realist Presuppositions: a Kantian Framework CHESS Working Paper No. 2018-01 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] March 2018	Eleonora Montuschi, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice	CHESSK4UWP_2018_01
How to Learn about Causes in the Single Case CHESS Working Paper No. 2017-04 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] December 2017	Prof Nancy Cartwright, Durham University	CHESSK4UWP_2017_04
Against External Validity CHESS Working Paper No. 2017-03 November 2017	Prof Julian Reiss, Durham University	CHESSK4UWP_2017_03
Fact-Value Entanglement in Positive Economics CHESS Working Paper No. 2017-02 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] April 2017	Prof Julian Reiss, Durham University
Improving Child Safety: deliberation, judgement and empirical research [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] February 2017	Munro, E., Cartwright, N., Hardie, J. and Montuschi, E.	CWP-2017-01
What’s so special about empirical adequacy? CHESS Working Paper No. 2016-08 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] September 2016	Sindhuja Bhakthavatsalam, California State University and Prof Nancy Cartwright, Durham University and UCSD	CHESSK4UWP_2016_08
A Theory of Measurement CHESS Working Paper No. 2016-07 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] September 2016	Prof Norman M. Bradburn, NORC and University of Chicago, Prof Nancy Cartwright, Durham University and UCSD and Jonathan Fuller, University of Toronto	CHESSK4UWP_2016_07
Are laws of nature consistent with contingency? CHESS Working Paper No. 2016-06 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] September 2016	Prof Nancy Cartwright, Durham University and UCSD and Pedro Merlussi, Durham University	CHESSK4UWP_2016_06
Understanding and misunderstanding randomized controlled trials CHESS Working Paper No. 2016-05 [Produced as part of the Knowledge for Use (K4U) Research Project] August 2016	Prof Sir Angus Deaton, Princeton University and Prof Nancy Cartwright, Durham University and UCSD	CHESSK4UWP_2016_05
The Poetry of Science: Creativity and Constraint CHESS Working Paper No. 2016-04 April 2016	Prof Tom McLeish, Professor, Department of Physics, Durham University	CHESSWP_2016_04
Iraq's Dark Shadow: Tony Blair's moment of truth? CHESS Working Paper No. 2016-03 April 2016	Marie-Hélène Labbé, Visiting Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Durham University	CWP-Labbev2-2016-03
Causality, Teleology and Explanation in Social Sciences CHESS Working Paper No. 2016-02 February 2016	Ricardo F. Crespo, IAE Universidad Austral and National Council of Scientific Research (Argentina)	CHESS_WP_2016_02
Objectivity – What it is for, when we can have it and when we can’t CHESS Working Paper No. 2016-01 February 2016	Jeremy Hardie, London School of Economics	CWP_Hardie_2016-01
Archaeological Modeling, Representational and Experimental CHESS Working Paper No. 2015-04 December 2015	Alison Wylie, University of Washington (Seattle) and Durham University	CWP04-15
Making the Most of the Evidence: Evidence-based policy in the classroom CHESS Working Paper No. 2015-03 July 2015	Nick Cowen, Kings College London and Nancy Cartwright, Durham University with Baljinder Virk and Stella Mascarenhas-Keyes	Making the Most of the Evidence: Evidence-based policy in the classroom
Single Case Causes: What is Evidence and Why CHESS Working Paper No. 2015-02 March 2015	Nancy Cartwright, Durham University	CHESSWP_2015_02
A Pragmatist Theory of Evidence CHESS Working Paper No. 2015-01 February 2015	Julian Reiss, Durham University	CHESS Working Paper No. 2015-01
Making the Most of the Evidence in Education: A Guide for Working Out What Works...Here and Now CHESS Working Paper No. 2014-03 October 2014	Nick Cowen, King's College London, and Nancy Cartwright, Durham University	CHESS Working Paper No. 2014-03
Deliberating Policy: Where morals and methods mix – and not always for the best CHESS Working Paper No. 2014-02 July 2014	Nancy Cartwright, Durham University	Cartwright 2014-02
Struggling Over the Soul of Economics: Objectivity vs Expertise CHESS Working Paper No. 2013-01 September 2013	Julian Reiss, Durham University	Reiss WP 2013-01

CHESS Working Paper Series

(Online) ISSN 2053-2660

Modelling Objectively

Not for profit, but for use: is philosophy good for practice?

Causality and its implications for Theories of Change and evaluations of complex systems

Using Middle-Level Theory to Improve Programme and Evaluation Design

Making predictions of programme success more reliable

Causal processes – a social policy example

Theory and Evidence in Economics

What Are the Drivers of Induction? Towards a Material Theory+

For whom does ‘what works’ work? The political economy of evidence-based education

Predictive analytics in child protection

Street-level Theories of Change: Adapting the Medical Model of Evidence-based Practice for Policing

Objectivity in Science and Law: A Shared Rescue Strategy

Mechanisms, ceteris paribus laws and covering-law explanation

Trade-offs between Epistemic and Moral Values in Evidence-Based Policy

A Technical Overview of the Evidence Framework Approach: Practical Ways of Thinking about Evidence

Constructed Objectivity and Realist Presuppositions: a Kantian Framework

How to Learn about Causes in the Single Case

Against External Validity

Fact-Value Entanglement in Positive Economics

Improving Child Safety: deliberation, judgement and empirical research

What’s so special about empirical adequacy?

A Theory of Measurement

Are laws of nature consistent with contingency?

Understanding and misunderstanding randomized controlled trials

The Poetry of Science: Creativity and Constraint

Iraq's Dark Shadow: Tony Blair's moment of truth?

Causality, Teleology and Explanation in Social Sciences

Objectivity – What it is for, when we can have it and when we can’t

Archaeological Modeling, Representational and Experimental

Making the Most of the Evidence: Evidence-based policy in the classroom

Single Case Causes: What is Evidence and Why

A Pragmatist Theory of Evidence

Making the Most of the Evidence in Education: A Guide for Working Out What Works...Here and Now

Deliberating Policy: Where morals and methods mix – and not always for the best

Struggling Over the Soul of Economics: Objectivity vs Expertise