Internationales Symposium der VolkswagenStiftung

"Academia in the Age of Comparison. Methodological and Empirical Perspectives"

Comparisons represent a core operation of the production of meaning and social order. Although of general social relevance, comparisons are of particular importance in academia, where comparisons represent both a meta-method and a social practice. The ascent of rankings, altmetrics and other comparative devices suggests that comparisons have lost their innocence as a scientific meta-method and are becoming increasingly important as a ubiquitous social practice that has turned onto academics themselves. Reflecting on this development, the participants of our international and interdisciplinary symposium discussed transformations and continuities of academic comparisons from an empirical and methodological perspective in four panels: 1. What can be learned from historical perspectives on comparisons? 2. What is the interrelation between the comparator and the compared? 3. How do devices and instruments of comparison operate and how can they be compared to each other? 4. What are the consequences of these comparisons?

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