Academic Career
After attending Roman Catholic schools including – at the same time as the Liverpool poet, Roger McGough – St Mary's College in Crosby, a direct grant grammar (and now an independent) school, Taylor first trained as an actor at Rose Bruford College, being associated with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in Stratford East. He also worked as a teacher at a comprehensive school. After earning degrees in sociology and psychology, as a mature student, at Birkbeck College and the University of Leicester, he joined the department of sociology at the University of York, becoming a professor at that institution. He is retired from this position.
He has a particular interest in criminology and was one of the founder members of the National Deviancy Conference. Perhaps his best known early work was the book co-written with Stanley Cohen: Escape Attempts: The Theory and Practice of Resistance to Everyday Life. The book arose from research into the wellbeing of long term prisoners. He has also collaborated on research with bank robber turned author John McVicar.
Taylor is sometimes thought to be the model for Howard Kirk in Malcolm Bradbury's novel The History Man although Bradbury and Taylor had not met at the time the book was written. Taylor was a member of the Trotskyist International Socialists
Read more about this topic: Laurie Taylor (sociologist)
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