Dr Mark Taylor

School of Education

Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Methods

m.r.taylor@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 7124

The Wave

Full contact details

Dr Mark Taylor
School of Education
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH

Profile: Improving access to arts & culture - Meet Dr Mark Taylor

Mark is Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Methods. He’s interested in cultural and creative industries, with particular focuses on social inequalities in work and in participation. His background is in sociology, but his research interests are interdisciplinary, across sociology, cultural policy, cultural studies, music, games, and other fields.

His most recent book, with Orian Brook and Dave O’Brien, is Culture is bad for you: Inequality in the cultural and creative industries.

He's also the author of reports on the UK Games Industry Census from both 2020 and 2022, which he delivers in participation with Ukie. He delivered a talk on this work at the Game Developer Conference in 2022.

Alongside his role at the SMI, he also sits on the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport's College of Experts.

Mark joined the SMI in 2014. Before that, he worked at the Universities of Manchester and York, and completed his DPhil in Sociology at the University of Oxford.

A longer list of publications can be found below, or on Google Scholar.

Research interests: Mark's interested in inequalities in cultural and creative industries. Why is it that work in cultural jobs is so socially exclusive, given the way that the sector describes itself? Why is it that audiences are so socially homogeneous? How does the governance of the arts relate to inequalities?

He’s also interested in related issues, such as the ubiquity of data in everyday life, the conditions of working in creative jobs, the ways that what constitutes creative work are constructed and defined, and the overall structure of different industries.

Mark’s used a wide range of different research methods, including the collection of original survey data, analysis of existing large survey data sources, network analysis, spatial analysis, and qualitative methods. He's particularly keen on the creative use of data visualisation in research.

While most of his work is based in the UK, he's also currently working with a team at Deakin University on a project about audience diversification in the arts in Australia.

Publications

Books

Brook O, Taylor M & O'Brien D (2020) Culture Is Bad for You Inequality in the Cultural and Creative Industries. Manchester University Press.
Bell A, Hartman T, Piekut A, Rae A & Taylor M (2020) Making Sense of Data in the Media. Sage.

Journal articles

Hanquinet L & Taylor M (2025) Divergences and convergences across European musical preferences: How taste varies within and between countries. Poetics, 108, 101946-101946.
McGrath M & Taylor M (2022) Social Class in UK Museums: Mark Taylor Interviews Michelle McGrath. Journal of Museum Education, 47(4), 414-427.
Feder T, McAndrew S, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2022) Cultural consumption and Covid-19: evidence from the Taking Part and COVID-19 Cultural Participation Monitor surveys. Leisure Studies. View this article in WRRO
Brook O, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2019) Inequality talk : how discourses by senior men reinforce exclusions from creative occupations. European Journal of Cultural Studies. View this article in WRRO
McAndrew S, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2019) The values of culture? Social closure in the political identities, policy preferences, and social attitudes of cultural and creative workers. The Sociological Review. View this article in WRRO
Hanquinet L, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2019) The coming crisis of cultural engagement? Measurement, methods, and the nuances of niche activities. Cultural Trends, 28(2-3), 198-219. View this article in WRRO
Baker G, Bull A & Taylor M (2018) Who watches the watchmen? Evaluating evaluations of El Sistema. British Journal of Music Education, 35(3), 255-269. View this article in WRRO
Campbell P, O Brien D & Taylor M (2018) Cultural Engagement and the Economic Performance of the Cultural and Creative Industries: An Occupational Critique. Sociology, 53(2), 347-367. View this article in WRRO
Oman S & Taylor M (2018) Subjective well-being in cultural advocacy: a politics of research between the market and the academy. Journal of Cultural Economy, 11(3), 225-243. View this article in WRRO
Taylor MR & O'Brien D (2017) ‘Culture is a Meritocracy’: Why Creative Workers’ Attitudes may Reinforce Social Inequality. Sociological Research Online, 22(4), 27-47. View this article in WRRO
Harris S, Nichols GS & Taylor M (2017) Bowling even more alone: trends towards individual participation in sport. European Sport Management Quarterly, 17(3), 290-311. View this article in WRRO
Taylor M (2016) Taking Part: the next five years (2016) by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Cultural Trends, 25(4), 291-294. View this article in WRRO
Taylor MR (2016) Nonparticipation or different styles of participation? Alternative interpretations from Taking Part. Cultural Trends, 25(3: Everyday Participation and Cultural Value. Part 1), 169-181. View this article in WRRO
Savage M, Devine F, Cunningham N, Friedman S, Laurison D, Miles A, Snee H & Taylor M (2015) On Social Class, Anno 2014. Sociology, 49(6), 1011-1030.
Beer D & Taylor M (2013) The Hidden Dimensions of the Musical Field and the Potential of the New Social Data. Sociological Research Online, 18(2), 11-21.
Savage M, Devine F, Cunningham N, Taylor M, Li Y, Hjellbrekke J, Le Roux B, Friedman S & Miles A (2013) A New Model of Social Class? Findings from the BBC’s Great British Class Survey Experiment. Sociology, 47(2), 219-250.
Ditchfield H, Oman S, Kennedy H, Fratczak M, Bates J, Taylor M & Medina Perea I () What ifs: the role of imagining in people's reflections on data uses. Convergence.
Kennedy H, Ditchfield H, Oman S, Bates J, Medina Perea I, Fratczak M & Taylor M () How people connect fairness and equity when they talk about data uses. Big Data and Society. View this article in WRRO
Taylor M, Kennedy H & Oman S () Challenging assumptions about the relationship between awareness of and attitudes to data uses amongst the UK public. The Information Society.
Johanson K, Glow H & Taylor M () Collecting and classifying data on audience identity: the cultural background of festival audiences. Cultural Trends, 1-18.
Brook O, Miles A, O’Brien D & Taylor M () Social Mobility and ‘Openness’ in Creative Occupations since the 1970s. Sociology, 003803852211299-003803852211299.
O’Brien D, Rees G & Taylor M () Cultural governance within and across cities and regions: Evidence from the English publicly funded arts sector. European Urban and Regional Studies, 096977642211137-096977642211137.
Brook O, O’Brien D & Taylor M () “There’s No Way That You Get Paid to Do the Arts”: Unpaid Labour Across the Cultural and Creative Life Course. Sociological Research Online, 136078041989529-136078041989529.
O'Brien D, Rees G & Taylor M () Who runs the arts in England? A social network analysis of arts boards. Poetics.
FEDER TAL, McAndrew S, O'Brien D & Taylor M () Cultural Consumption and Covid-19: Evidence from the Taking Part and COVID-19 Cultural Participation Monitor surveys.

Chapters

Feder T, Brook O, Florisson R, McAndrew S, O'Brien D, Owen G & Taylor M (2024) What happened to the workers? Understanding the impact of the pandemic on jobs and working hours in the cultural sector, Pandemic culture: The impacts of COVID-19 on the UK cultural sector and implications for the future (pp. 54-94).
O’Brien D, Taylor M, Brook O & McAndrew S (2024) How Do We Explain Inequality Within Artistic and Cultural Occupations? The Problem of Downward Social Mobility, Sociology of the Arts (pp. 37-55). Springer Nature Switzerland
Brook O, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2020) Art Workers, Inequality, and the Labour Market: Values, Norms, and Alienation Across Three Generations of Artists, The Sociology of Arts and Markets (pp. 75-96). Springer International Publishing
Graham H, Hill K, Matthews P, O'Brien D & Taylor M (2019) Connecting epistemologies and the early career researcher In Fenby-Hulse K, Heywood E & Walker K (Ed.), Research Impact and the Early Career Researcher: Lived Experiences, New Perspectives
Taylor M, Brook O & O'Brien D (2019) The creative economy, the creative class and cultural intermediation In Jones P, Perry B & Long P (Ed.), Cultural Intermediaries Connecting Communities: Revisiting Approaches to Cultural Engagement (pp. 27-42). Bristol: Policy Press.

Reports

Ditchfield H, Oman S, Kennedy H, Bates J, Taylor M, Medina Perea I, Pinney E & Fratczak M (2023) Public perceptions of BBC data uses in experiments which give people more control of data
Bates J, Medina Perea I, Kennedy H, Oman S, Taylor M, Ditchfield H, Pinney E & Fratczak M (2022) Public perceptions of DWP’s uses of data for identity verification
Medina Perea I, Kennedy H, Oman S, Bates J, Taylor M, Ditchfield H, Pinney E & Fratczak M (2022) Public perceptions of sharing and aggregating health data
Ditchfield H, Kennedy H, Oman S, Pinney E, Bates J, Fratczak M, Medina Perea I & Taylor M (2022) Report on Living With Data Interviews & Focus Groups
Kennedy H, Taylor M, Oman S, Bates J, Medina Perea I, Ditchfield H & Pinney E (2021) Living with Data survey report
Kennedy H, Oman S, Taylor M, Bates J & Steedman R (2020) Public understanding and perceptions of data practices: a review of existing research

Datasets

Marsh J, Arnseth DHC, Beech A, Bishop J, Blum-Ross DA, Chesworth E, Dýrfjörð K, Ellis H, Erstad PO, Fashanu C , Hjartarson DT et al Makerspaces in the Early Years: Current Perceptions and Practices of Early Years Practitioners, Library and Museum Educators and Makerspace Staff - A Survey.
Marsh J, Beech A, Bishop J, Chesworth E, Ellis H, Fashanu C, Hyatt D, Kay L, Kontopodis M, Ktenidis A , Lahmar J et al UK (Sheffield) (Makerspaces in the Early Years).

Teaching interests: Mark’s teaching is focused on working with students so that they can articulate the questions they’re interested in answering, identifying the methods that are most suitable for answering those questions, and implementing those methods practically. He’s particularly interested in working with students who don’t have a background in quantitative methods or in programming who are interested in becoming more comfortable with working with data.

While working at the SMI, Mark’s taught a wide range of modules, including data visualisation, research design, and social analytics. He’s also the author, with Andy Bell, Todd Hartman, Aneta Piekut, and Alasdair Rae, of Making sense of data in the media.

He’s been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2016, and a Senior Fellow since 2018.

Mark's currently serving as the SMI's Director of Education.

PhD Supervision: Tessa Sawyer