Dr Mark Taylor

School of Education

Senior Lecturer in Quantitative Methods

Mark Taylor
Profile picture of Mark Taylor
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 . 

He's also the author of reports on the UK Games Industry Census from both and , which he delivers in participation with .  He delivered a  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 .

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 .

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  about audience diversification in the arts in Australia.

Publications

Books

  • Brook O, O'Brien D & Taylor M (2025) Culture is bad for you: Inequality in the cultural and creative industries, revised and updated edition.
  • Brook O, Taylor M & O'Brien D (2020) . Manchester University Press.
  • Bell A, Hartman T, Piekut A, Rae A & Taylor M (2020) . SAGE Publications Ltd.

Journal articles

  • Brook O, Giuliani G, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2025) . Cultural Trends.
  • Johanson K, Trott A, Taylor M, Kershaw A, Glow H & Margieson T (2025) . International Journal of Cultural Policy.
  • Feder T, Florisson R, O’Brien D, Taylor M & McAndrew S (2025) . Work and Occupations, 52(4), 615-649.
  • Campbell P, Leigh D, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2025) . Media, Culture & Society, 47(4), 785-804.
  • Hanquinet L & Taylor M (2025) . Poetics, 108.
  • Kennedy H, Ditchfield H, Oman S, Bates J, Medina Perea I, Fratczak M & Taylor M (2024) . Big Data and Society, 11(4).
  • Ditchfield H, Oman S, Kennedy H, Fratczak M, Bates J, Taylor M & Medina Perea I (2024) . Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 30(6), 2025-2041.
  • Taylor M, Kennedy H & Oman S (2024) . The Information Society, 40(1), 32-53.
  • Johanson K, Glow H & Taylor M (2024) . Cultural Trends, 33(5), 469-486.
  • Brook O, Miles A, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2023) . Sociology, 57(4), 789-810.
  • O’Brien D, Rees G & Taylor M (2023) . European Urban and Regional Studies, 30(2), 186-204.
  • McGrath M & Taylor M (2022) . Journal of Museum Education, 47(4), 414-427.
  • Feder T, McAndrew S, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2022) . Leisure Studies, 42(1), 38-55.
  • O'Brien D, Rees G & Taylor M (2022) . Poetics, 92(A).
  • Brook O, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2021) . European Journal of Cultural Studies, 24(2), 498-513.
  • Brook O, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2020) . Sociological Research Online, 25(4), 571-588.
  • McAndrew S, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2020) . The Sociological Review, 68(1), 33-54.
  • Hanquinet L, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2019) . Cultural Trends, 28(2-3), 198-219.
  • Baker G, Bull A & Taylor M (2018) . British Journal of Music Education, 35(3), 255-269.
  • Campbell P, O Brien D & Taylor M (2018) . Sociology, 53(2), 347-367.
  • Oman S & Taylor M (2018) . Journal of Cultural Economy, 11(3), 225-243.
  • Taylor MR & O'Brien D (2017) . Sociological Research Online, 22(4).
  • Harris S, Nichols GS & Taylor M (2017) . European Sport Management Quarterly, 17(3), 290-311.
  • Taylor M (2016) . Cultural Trends, 25(4), 291-294.
  • Taylor MR (2016) . Cultural Trends, 25(3), 169-181.
  • Savage M, Devine F, Cunningham N, Friedman S, Laurison D, Miles A, Snee H & Taylor M (2015) . Sociology, 49(6), 1011-1030.
  • Beer D & Taylor M (2013) . 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) . Sociology, 47(2), 219-250.

Book 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).
  • Hanquinet L, O'Brien D & Taylor M (2024) , A Reader on Audience Development and Cultural Policy (pp. 212-234). Routledge
  • Johanson K, Glow H & Taylor M (2024) , A Reader on Audience Development and Cultural Policy (pp. 194-211). Routledge
  • O’Brien D, Taylor M, Brook O & McAndrew S (2024) , Sociology of the Arts (pp. 37-55). Springer Nature Switzerland
  • Taylor M, Polisetty A, O'Brien D, Comunian R, Dent T & Wreyford N (2023) Creative Higher Education: insights from UCAS and Census 2021 In Comunian R, Dent T, O'Brien D, Read T & Wreyford N (Ed.), Making The Creative Majority Kings College London (KCL)
  • Hanquinet L, O'Brien D & Taylor M (2023) , Audience Data and Research (pp. 118-139). Routledge
  • Brook O, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2020) , Sociology of the Arts (pp. 75-96). Springer International Publishing
  • Graham H, Hill K, Matthews P, O’Brien D & Taylor M (2019) , Research Impact and the Early Career Researcher (pp. 106-126). Routledge
  • Brook O, O’brien D & Taylor M (2019) The creative economy, the creative class and cultural intermediation, Cultural Intermediaries Connecting Communities Revisiting Approaches to Cultural Engagement (pp. 27-42).

Reports

  • O'Brien D, Taylor M & Wang R (2025)
  • McAndrew S, O'Brien D, Taylor M & Wang R (2025)
  • Glow H, Kershaw A, Johanson K, Trott A, Margieson T, Taylor M & Enoch W (2024) Changing organisations to diversify arts audiences: summary of findings from the community of practice: Phase two report
  • McAndrew S, O'Brien D, Taylor M & Wang R (2024)
  • 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
  • O'Brien D, Taylor M & Campbell P (2023) The BFI film fund and class: Breaking down the data
  • Glow H, Kershaw A, Johanson K, Trott A, Margieson T, Taylor M & Enoch W (2023) Changing audiences to diversify arts audiences: summary of findings from national survey
  • 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
  • Taylor M (2022) UK Games Industry Census 2022: Understanding diversity in the UK games industry workforce
  • 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
  • Taylor M (2020) UK Games Industry Census 2020
  • Brook O, O'Brien D & Taylor M (2018) Panic! Social class, taste and inequalities in the creaitve industries

Working papers

  • FEDER TAL, McAndrew S, O'Brien D & Taylor M (2021) .

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 .
  • Marsh J, Beech A, Bishop J, Chesworth E, Ellis H, Fashanu C, Hyatt D, Kay L, Kontopodis M, Ktenidis A , Lahmar J et al .

Preprints

  • Brook O, O'Brien D & Taylor M (2018) , Center for Open Science.
  • Brook O, O'Brien D & Taylor M (2018) , California Digital Library (CDL).
  • Brook O, O'Brien D & Taylor M (2017) , Center for Open Science.
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 . 

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