PUB - Publikationen an der Universität Bielefeld

In this paper we lay down a comparative framework for theorizing university rankings, which can be used and further extended by scholars interested in advancing research on rankings. In so doing, we contextualize the analysis of university rankings within a broader sociology of rankings. We identify two dimensions along which such contextualization could be done: (a) systematic, referring to the comparison of university rankings with rankings in other fields and focusing on how university rankings can be informed by insights from other empirical settings; and (b) historical, which concerns long-term trajectories, rather than just the last few years. We argue that analogical theorizing is one promising strategy for doing this, and to illustrate this, we bring insights from the arts and sports fields into the study of university rankings. This approach, we argue, can benefit both our understanding of university rankings and rankings more generally.