TRANSFORMATIONS AND CONTINUITS OF COMPARATIVE STUDIES ON GEOGRAPHY

Abstract

The use of comparison in geographic studies is old, and it was admitted, at first, as a method. Currently it has been much more understood as a methodological question - relative to researcher's choice and done by the researcher, for this reason, reduced to a procedure. In order to contribute to this debate, and at the same time, to offer some theoretical and methodological elements of comparative studies, this article discusses how the process of comparison has been submitted to structure and organizational change in Geography History. The structural alterations are related to the methods and the organization changes are associated to the concepts of region, differentiation of areas and production of space. Although they seem fragmented, we suggest that is more interesting to keep the concepts in a constant dialectical tension, adjusting them to interactions, which stuck among them, whilst totalization distinct moments (universalization, particularization and singularization). In this way, it is possible to absorb into the compared studies which show, on one hand, differences or similarities and, on the other hand, generalization or particularization.