Revisiting Charles Tilly, Twenty Years on

The year 2028 marks the twentieth anniversary of Charles Tilly’s passing—a timely moment to reassess the vitality of his intellectual legacy across sociology, history, and political science. In an age shaped by neoliberal globalization, widening inequality, authoritarian populism, democratic backsliding, and devastating wars of aggression, Tilly’s questions about power, contention, inequality, regimes, and historical change are more urgent than ever.

This open session invites papers that move beyond retrospective tribute. Rather than merely summarizing Tilly’s achievements, we seek contributions that examine how a new generation of scholars has reworked, extended, and challenged his theories and methods over the past two decades. Tilly’s influence spans state formation, collective violence, revolutions, strikes, social movements, contentious politics, repertoires and performances of contention, democracy and (de-)democratization, durable inequality, trust networks, relational approaches, causal mechanisms, historical sociology, event analysis, among others.

Few scholars matched Tilly’s extraordinary range, historical depth, and global comparative vision. Yet by bringing together researchers producing innovative work in their own fields, this session aims to illuminate what Tilly’s theoretical and methodological legacy has become twenty years later—and what it still might become. In some areas, his framework has evolved far beyond its original formulation; in others, major possibilities remain underexplored.

What in Tilly’s agenda have we successfully refined? Which dimensions remain neglected? And how can we mobilize and reinvent Tilly’s tools to confront today’s most pressing crises? This session seeks to stand on the shoulders of a giant—not to look backward, but to see further.