Education, Language and Sociology Research ISSN 2690-3644 (Print) ISSN 2690-3652 (Online) Vol. 1, No. 1, 2020 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elsr 1 Short Paper Comparison in Sociology Sandro Serpa 1,2,3* & Daniela Soares 4 1 Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of the Azores, Portugal 2 Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences, CICS.UAc/CICS.NOVA.UAc 3 Interdisciplinary Centre for Childhood and Adolescence, NICA-UAc 4 Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences, CICS.NOVA * Sandro Serpa, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of the Azores, Portugal Received: February 7, 2020 Accepted: February 15, 2020 Online Published: February 22, 2020 doi:10.22158/elsr.v1n1p1 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/elsr.v1n1p1 Abstract The relationship between comparison and sociology is a fundamental motive when deepening the forms of sociological research. This paper aims to contribute to the analysis of the importance of comparison, in several possible forms, in the creation and consolidation of sociological knowledge. To accomplish this goal, a documental collection and analysis of manuscripts deemed essential was carried out based on the snowball system, in which the reading of manuscripts referred to other manuscripts that, by their mobilization, seemed crucial on this topic. It is concluded that comparison is a process that is always present and it is essential in sociology, although sometimes in a more explicit way, and other times in a more implicit way. Keywords sociology, comparison, sociological analysis, comparative sociology, social sciences, scientific knowledge 1. Introduction The process of comparison in sociology is a fundamental reason when deepening the forms of sociological research. According to Derivry (1990), “The comparison is a fortiori the universal stance of all scientific knowledge” (p. 45). Sociology can be considered, for the purposes of this text, as “a scientific discipline that perceives in its specific way the social reality, producing plural theoretical topics, formulating research problems within the context of these topics, and developing methodical strategies that guide empirical research” (Ferreira & Serpa, 2017, p. 1), based on the key classical rule defined by Émile Durkheim in 1895—to brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by Scholink Journals