Dr Mark Taylor

Sheffield Methods Institute

Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Methods

Dr Mark Taylor
Profile picture of Dr Mark Taylor
m.r.taylor@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 7124

Full contact details

Dr Mark Taylor
Sheffield Methods Institute
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. RIS download Bibtex download
  • Bell A, Hartman T, Piekut A, Rae A & Taylor M (2020) Making Sense of Data in the Media. Sage. RIS download Bibtex download

Journal articles

Chapters

  • 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 RIS download Bibtex download
  • 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 RIS download Bibtex download
  • 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. RIS download Bibtex download

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 RIS download Bibtex download
  • 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 RIS download Bibtex download
  • 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 RIS download Bibtex download
  • 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 RIS download Bibtex download
  • Kennedy H, Taylor M, Oman S, Bates J, Medina Perea I, Ditchfield H & Pinney E (2021) Living with Data survey report RIS download Bibtex download
  • Kennedy H, Oman S, Taylor M, Bates J & Steedman R (2020) Public understanding and perceptions of data practices: a review of existing research RIS download Bibtex download

Datasets

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