Non-obvious discoveries. An interview with Randall Collins

This contribution consists of an elaboration of two interviews with Randall Collins, held in Trento and Milan in Spring 2017, during the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the journal Etnografia e Ricerca Qualitativa. Collins touches on his early career and the relationship with prominent figures in the field of sociology such as Erving Goffman, Herbert Blumer, and Talcott Parsons. He also discusses the relation between social theory and non-scientific literature, between ethnography and fictional writing, and also the origin and development of his microanalysis of violence.