The Work of Concepts: Interpretation, Power, and Modernity in Conversation with Isaac Ariail Reed

Abstract

In this interview, Isaac Ariail Reed discusses the place of theory in contemporary sociology and the conceptual trajectory that connects interpretation, explanation, power, and modernity in his work. Starting from his intellectual formation and his engagement with the Strong Program in cultural sociology, the conversation revisits Interpretation and Social Knowledge and its account of theory as a set of abstract languages for constructing interpretations. It then examines how the problem of interpretive explanation led Reed toward a multidimensional theory of power in Power in Modernity , centered on agency relations, delegation, authorship, and responsibility. The interview also addresses Reed's current research on artists and architecture in Las Vegas, a project that challenges established readings of the city as a postmodern simulacrum. It closes with a reflection on theory as conceptual labor: an effort to work on concepts, making them more portable and sharpening their capacity to make better sense of social life.