Practices Of Comparing

Practices of comparing shape how we perceive, organize, and change the world. Supposedly innocent, practices of comparing play a decisive role in forming categories, boundaries, and hierarchies; but they can also give an impetus to question and change such structures. Like almost no other human practice, comparing pervades all social, political, economic, and cultural spheres. This volume outlines the program of a new research agenda that places comparative practices at the center of an interdisciplinary exploration. Its contributions combine case studies with overarching systematic considerations. They show what insights can be gained and which further questions arise when one makes a seemingly trivial practice - comparing - the subject of in-depth research.

Practices of comparing shape how we perceive, organize, and change the world. This volume outlines the program of a new research agenda that places comparative practices at the center of an interdisciplinary exploration.

Brings together chapters from more than a dozen leading methods scholars to revolutionize qualitative research design. Provides novel strategies for conducting comparative political research beyond the controlled comparisons typically taught in graduate methods courses.

In 2015, China and the U.S. were among the top three countries in terms of the number of international PCT (Patent Cooperation Treaty) patents filed, together making up 40% of the global share, reported the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).Not surprisingly, there is a huge international desire within the business, legal and technical communities to better understand the Intellectual Property (IP) practices of these two giants in the industry. This book, a pioneer in comparing the two countries' practices side-by-side, does just that.Tao Zhang and Jingui Fang, respectively from Huawei Device USA and Huawei Technologies in China (2015's top PCT applicant according to WIPO, with 3,898 published patent applications), provide readers with first-hand guidance from invention conception to IP monetization, with a consistent emphasis on quality. Written such that readers can delve straight into any area of the IP cycle that interests them, the book also contains useful checklists that highlight best practices and key lessons learned.Whether you are an individual wanting to improve a product or process, a patent drafter needing to provide client satisfactory results, a patent asset manager desiring to create a bullet proof portfolio, or an IP business executive wishing to deliver much needed financial results to your company's bottom line, this book, with its comparative approach, is an essential read — filled with tips and information to help you create high quality patents.

Contact, Conquest and Colonization brings together international historians and literary studies scholars in order to explore the force of practices of comparing in shaping empires and colonial relations at different points in time and around the globe. Whenever there was cultural contact in the context of European colonization and empire-building, historical records teem with comparisons among those cultures. This edited volume focuses on what historical agents actually do when they compare, rather than on comparison as an analytic method. Its contributors are thus interested in the ‘doing of comparison’, and explore the force of these practices of comparing in shaping empires and (post-)colonial relations between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. This book will appeal to students and scholars of global history, as well as those interested in cultural history and the history of colonialism.

In the first volume of its kind, a collection of top policy scholars combine empirical and methodological analysis in the field of comparative policy studies to provide compelling insights into the formulation, implementation and evaluation of policies across regional and national boundaries.

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"Comparing is one of the most essential practices, in our everyday life as well as in science and humanities. In this in-depth philosophical analysis of the structure, practice and ethics of comparative procedures, Hartmut von Sass expands on the significance of comparison. Elucidating the ramified structure of comparing, von Sass suggests a typology of comparisons before introducing the notion of comparative injustice and the limits of comparisons. He elaborates on comparing as practice by relating comparing to three relative practices - orienting, describing, and expressing oneself - to unfold some of the most important chapters of what might be called comparativism. This approach allows von Sass to clarify the idea of the incomparable, distinguish between different versions of incomparability and shed light on important ethical aspects of comparisons today. Confronting the claim that we are living in an age of comparisons, his book is an important contribution to ideas surrounding all-encompassing measurements and scalability and their critique."--...