‘I Have Consistently Found Differences to Be Smaller’ Interview With Jan Willem Duyvendak

As an introduction to this collection of essays, we conducted a two-hour
conversation in which we sought to connect key intellectual developments
in Jan Willem Duyvendak’s work to major social and political events in the
Netherlands and beyond.1 The aim was not to provide a comprehensive
overview of his entire career or oeuvre, but rather to explore a number
of underlying themes that structure his thinking. We began by reflecting
on how his work might be categorised over time, moved from there to
the core elements of his own understanding of that trajectory, and then
turned to his current ideas. We concluded by inviting Duyvendak to offer
his reflections on what he would have contributed to this volume.