BEYOND COMPARISON

HISTOIRE CROISÉE AND THE CHALLENGE OF REFLEXIVITY

MICHAEL WERNER and BÉNÉDICTE ZIMMERMANN

History and Theory 45, no. 1 (2006), 30-50.

This article presents, in a programmatic way, the histoire croisée approach, its methodological implications and its empirical developments. Histoire croisée draws on the debates about comparative history, transfer studies, and connected or shared history that have been carried out in the social sciences in recent years. It invites us to reconsider the interactions between different societies or cultures, erudite disciplines or traditions (more generally, between social and cultural productions). Histoire croisée focuses on empirical intercrossings consubstantial with the object of study, as well as on the operations by which researchers themselves cross scales, categories, and viewpoints. The article first shows how this approach differs from purely comparative or transfer studies. It then develops the principles of pragmatic and reflexive induction as a major methodological principle of histoire croisée. While underlining the need and the methods of a historicization of both the objects and categories of analysis, it calls for a reconsideration of the way history can combine empirical and reflexive concerns into a dynamic and flexible approach.

Cover image: “Light Beam Warp Steel Wool,” by Joshua Sukoff (30 May 2020)