ABSTRACT
Smith's focus on "difference, a complex term which invites negotiation, classification and comparison" means comparison is not a matter of identifying one thing as another in terms of genealogical relationships. Smith argues, in his seminal essay "Map is not Territory", that value and meaning are imputed to our contexts through "structures of congruity and conformity". Again, Smith has helped us conceive a way forward by suggesting that all comparison should be carried out not in terms of binaries but in terms of, at the very least, a three-way relationship, such as comparing X, Y, and Z with respect to a particular variable. It is possible, then, in the method that Smith advocates, to slip into the maintenance of binary relationships. The suggestion that X can be compared to Y with respect to a variable can be abused to set up a binary opposition between the larger categories.
