Comparing and Change

Antje Flüchter is spokesperson of the collaborative research center 1288 »Practices of Comparing« and a professor of early modern history at Universität Bielefeld. Her primary focus lies in the interconnected history between Asia, especially India, and Europe, in the early modern period, as well as in history of religiosity, political history, gender history and the theory of history.Kirsten Kramer is principal investigator in the collaborative research center 1288 »Practices of Comparing« and a professor of comparative literature and Romance studies at Universität Bielefeld. Her main areas of research include literature and globalization, (travel) literature and ethnography, actor-network theory and visual studies.Rebecca Mertens is a postdoctoral researcher in the collaborative research center 1288 »Practices of Comparing«. Her research interests cover the role of analogies, models and forms of comparison in the history of the life sciences.Silke Schwandt is principal investigator in the collaborative research center 1288 »Practices of Comparing« and a professor of digital history at Universität Bielefeld. Her expertise lies in digital history, encompassing methods and theories of digital historical research.

Comparisons affect various ways of perceiving and interpreting the world, characterized by distinct legitimization strategies and knowledge application routines by different actors. The contributors to this volume explore the link between change and practices of comparing, focusing on order, representation, and models. They delve into how comparing influences knowledge production, but also focus on persisting orders of knowledge. This collection centers on the role of models and modeling in relation to practices of comparing, thus highlighting the representational and operational force of comparing as a way to form and organize reality.