Why do we compare?

An event by Repairing and Reimagining Comparison: Talking Methods and Research Experiences Across Disciplines Mika Hyman (HPS) About this event Having interrogated ‘what’ we compare, this second session turns to purpose. Why do we compare in the first place? What do we hope that such comparisons will reveal? Across disciplines, comparison serves a range of functions. For example, it can be used to make the familiar strange and to unsettle categories. It can also be used to generalise from specific case studies, or to test causal claims. Comparison also often does political work when it is used to rank societies and institutions, used to determine certain metrics such as ‘development’. Yet, refusing comparison is often not straightforward either as working with specific case-studies often r