Dr Dan Taylor

Professional biography

I write and research about power, place and what holds Britain together (or does not).

My second book, Island Story: Journeys Through Unfamiliar Britain, was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for political writing. It began as a four-month cycling trip across Britain with a rusty bike and a leaky tent, and it’s their stories, the people I met on the way, that are in the book. In 2023 I was selected as a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker, one of ten UK academics chosen nationally.

My current research is embedded. Over the last four years I’ve worked directly with communities in the Fens (Peterborough, Boston, Wisbech), in Barking and Dagenham, and with unpaid carers in Gateshead – building long-term partnerships, conducting fieldwork and interviews, and asking what it means to belong to a place the rest of the country has stopped paying attention to. I’m interested in infrastructure, connection and local power: what breaks when the bus stops running, and what that tells us about democracy.

By training I’m a political philosopher, and I’ve published a monograph on Baruch Spinoza alongside two edited volumes and a substantial body of journal articles and chapters – but philosophy, for me, has always been a tool for understanding the present.

I went to non-selective state schools in inner South London before gentrification hit, lived for years in social housing, and worked for six years in disability, mental health and homelessness services before entering academia. This is the vernacular through which each question is asked.

I teach at the Open University, the UK’s most important university for social mobility. I’ve appeared regularly on BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking and Radio 4, and written for The Independent, New Statesman, The Conversation and others. I was academic advisor on BBC2’s Union with David Olusoga. I am an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I have previously taught at Goldsmiths, University of London, Lawrence University, Roehampton University and the Mary Ward Centre.

Research

My current work focuses on three long-term community research projects:

• Fen Power: place, community and connection in Peterborough, Boston and Wisbech (project page)
• Inclusive growth and housing in Barking and Dagenham (project page)
• Unpaid care and social care in Gateshead (project page)

I also publish on Spinoza and the history of political thought. To date I've authored three monographs, two edited collections/special issues, nine journal articles, six chapters, and a similar half-dozen commissioned policy reports. A (mostly) full list of publications is available below and via ORO.

Teaching

I teach across politics and social science at the Open University. I have written material for You and Your World (D112), Global Challenges (D113), and Understanding Politics (DD211). I co-chair Modern Political Ideas (DD316) and am co-chairing a new Level 2 politics module launching in 2028.

I write regularly for OpenLearn, the Open University's free learning platform. Click here to read some of my articles.

In the past I wrote and taught many courses and modules in philosophy, politics and history - see the Teaching section of my blog to find out more.

Contact and collaboration

I welcome inquiries from prospective PhD students working in contemporary political theory, the history of political thought, or community-based and participatory research. I convene the Politics PhD programme at the Open University – details here.

For media, speaking or collaboration inquiries, email is the best route: dan.taylor@open.ac.uk

Current external roles and affiliations:

• Trustee for Gateshead Carers Association.
• Barking and Dagenham Community Research Network director, in partnership with Thames Life CDT
• International Advisory Board, Spinoza Studies, Edinburgh University Press.
• International Scientific Committee of Sive Natura, University of Bologna.
• Peer reviewer for MIT Press, Edinburgh University Press, Bloomsbury, and for the journals Political Theory, History of Political Thought, History of European Ideas, the British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Constellations, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books, and the Journal of Modern Jewish Studies.