Peter Taylor-Gooby

Peter Taylor-Gooby is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Kent and Director of the ESRC Social Contexts and Responses to Risk Programme. He enjoys hill-walking in the more rugged areas of the UK and riding his bike in the flatter parts. His current chief concern is the determination of the 2010 coalition government in the UK to undermine the achievements of the welfare state and cut the incomes of working people so as to improve profitability. He is married with three great children.

He is an elected Fellow of the British Academy, a Founding Academician at ALSiSS, a Fellow of the RSA, recent President of the Sociology and Social Policy section of the BAAS, co-director of the Risk Research Centre, 2008 onwards, Beijing Normal University, State-appointed Visiting Foreign Expert to China 2008-11 and Chair of the Social Policy and Social Work Research Assessment Exercise Panel 2001 and 2008.

His first degree is in philosophy at Bristol University. He became interested in social policy issues after working on adventure playgrounds, teaching, claiming benefits and working in a social security office in Newcastle. He then carried out research for his MPhil as part of Batley Community Development Project, and for his doctorate in the Medway Towns.

More recently he has developed an interest in comparing ways in which social problems and issues are addressed in various countries, leading to work in China where both the opportunities and the imagination of policy-makers operate on a larger scale.