obituary: PROFESSOR GEORGE BEREDAY

Comparison as a Method for Geography Education

“…In particular, the model of Hilker [64] and Bereday [65], as well as the comparison description of Silver [66], are taken as a starting point and will be extended critically along all aspects of our definition discussed above. In order to better illustrate our proposal for a systematic method of comparison, the individual steps are explained using the example of European asylum policies.…”

“…One of the first, and most common, models for undertaking comparative research was developed by Franz Hilker [64] and Georges Bereday [65] (Adick [24] offers a discussion about the connections between Bereday's schematic and Hilker's model). The model of comparative analysis consists of four steps: description, interpretation, juxtaposition, and comparison.…”

“…Juxtaposition is a preliminary stage of comparing facts and findings with the aim of classifying data and to establish criteria, namely a tertium comparationis, as a basis for a valid comparison. The final stage focuses on more general comparison but with full consideration of context, in an attempt to generalize the findings and conclude the comparison [64,65].…”

“…A point of criticism often identified is the focus of nation states on the subject areas identified for comparison [15,24,59]. In the majority of cases, research designs focused on comparison are designed for international comparisons of states, as was the model of Hilker [64] and Bereday [65] presented previously. Nina Glick-Schiller and Andreas Wimmer [70] argue that human sciences take the nation state as an unquestioned and natural unit of analyses, which causes a perception of a nation state based with congruent social, cultural, political, and judicial borders.…”