Charles Tilly video interview

11 April 2008, 1511 EDT

Daniel Little has a wonderful project instantiated in his website “UnderstandingSociety ChangingSociety” aimed at providing resources for those interested in social processes and social change.

He’s collected a number of interviews with prominent figures. I’ve watched the one with Charles Tilly, which is really a remarkable interview with a remarkable scholar and intellectual.

I highly recommend that readers of the Duck take a look, particularly those of you in academia or thinking of going that route. The first part of what turns out to be a very long discussion is below.

Although I’ve heard a lot of the content of Chuck’s interview before–I imagine most of his students and collaborators will recognize much of the commentary–seeing it all put together was an extraordinary experience.

Pay special attention to Chuck’s discussion of his intellectual odyssey, how his views on fundamental issues in social-scientific analysis changed over time, and his reflections on the tensions between the “ideal” of social-scientific progress and the social-psychological dynamics of advising PhD students.

I plan to check out the one with Sid Tarrow next.

Dan Nexon

Daniel H. Nexon is a Professor at Georgetown University, with a joint appointment in the Department of Government and the School of Foreign Service. His academic work focuses on international-relations theory, power politics, empires and hegemony, and international order. He has also written on the relationship between popular culture and world politics.

He has held fellowships at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation and at the Ohio State University's Mershon Center for International Studies. During 2009-2010 he worked in the U.S. Department of Defense as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. He was the lead editor of International Studies Quarterly from 2014-2018.

He is the author of The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe: Religious Conflict, Dynastic Empires, and International Change (Princeton University Press, 2009), which won the International Security Studies Section (ISSS) Best Book Award for 2010, and co-author of Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order (Oxford University Press, 2020). His articles have appeared in a lot of places. He is the founder of the The Duck of Minerva, and also blogs at Lawyers, Guns and Money.