On the afternoon of April 23, 2025, the Institute for International and Area Studies of Tsinghua University invited Professor Philip Taylor, a member of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, Emeritus Professor of the Australian National University, and former Head of the Department of Anthropology of the Asia-Pacific Institute, to give the sixth talk on “Historical Sociology” of the lecture series on “Southeast Asian Studies: The Intellectual Foundations of an Area Studies Discipline”. The lecture was hosted by Guan Hao, a post-doctoral researcher in IIAS. Dozens of students and faculty members from domestic and foreign universities as well as professionals who are interested in the topic attended, both offline and online.

At the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Taylor recalled the basic position of Weber's “social action theory” and pointed out that social behavior should be interpreted in terms of the individual's frame of meaning, rather than the social structure, environment or culture itself. He emphasized that culture, although not a decisive force, can catalyze social change in a given context, especially in institutional transformation and economic behavior. Prof. Taylor then applied Weber's theory to Southeast Asian practice, showing how multiculturalism has shaped the logic of “non-capitalist market economies” through the cases of Buddhist market ethics in Myanmar, Confucian business traditions, and Vietnamese rice-growing villages. At the same time, he added how religious values regulate business ethics and moral dilemmas in the modern marketplace, further highlighting the adaptability of Weber's ideas for the times. In terms of power analysis, Prof. Taylor introduced the three kinds of legitimate domination by Weber - traditional, charismatic and legal-rational, and explored the dynamic balance between institutional construction and social identity in Southeast Asian countries in the context of the cases of Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.

Finally, in the interactive discussion session, Prof. Taylor and the students had a lively discussion on whether religious ethics promotes economic development and whether historical sociology can be applied to contemporary analysis.

Philip Taylor, PhD in Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Emeritus at the Australian National University, and former Head of the Department of Anthropology at the Asia Pacific Institute. He has lived and worked in Vietnam and Cambodia for over a decade, and has a command of Vietnamese, Cambodian and French. His research interests include contemporary anthropology of Vietnam, Mekong sub-regional studies, Southeast and East Asian studies, development and urbanization, and modernity. Representative works include monographs The Khmer Lands of Vietnam: Environment, Cosmology and Sovereignty (2014, Winner of the EuroSEAS-Nikkei Asian Review Social Science Book Award), Goddess on the Rise: Pilgrimage and Popular Religion in Vietnam（2004）, Fragments of the Present: Searching for Modernity in Vietnam's South（2001）et al. Professor Taylor has supervised more than 30 PhD theses during his tenure at the Australian National University and has been awarded the ANU ‘top supervisor’ award. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Anthropology, Editor-in-Chief of the Vietnam Series of the Australian National University Press, and as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Vietnamese Studies, the Review of Asian Studies, and the Cambridge History of the Vietnam War (Volume 3).