Peter Taylor-Gooby, Professor of Social Policy at the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research, has been awarded an OBE for Services to Social Science.
Professor Taylor-Gooby is internationally noted for his work on new social risks, an area of study he helped create and develop. His research interests include current developments in the welfare state, particularly the ‘cuts’ and welfare state restructuring, the social divisions association with inequality and the struggles over multiculturalism. He also has interests in cross-disciplinary work on risk, comparative cross-national work on European social policy and work on theoretical developments in social policy.
His work has attracted the attention of policymakers from the UK to East Asia, leading to a number of official invitations to Korea and Japan, as a Distinguished Visitor to the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and association with the Risk Research Centre at Beijing Normal University. Between 2009 and 2010, he was an Advisor to the British Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and has participated in the Prime Minister’s No 10 ‘progressive consensus’ Round Table.
His publications consist of more than 130 articles, 100 book chapters and 22 books.
Professor Taylor-Gooby joined the University of Kent in 1979 as a Lecturer in Social Policy and became Professor of Social Policy in 1990. Originally a philosophy graduate, 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.
He is currently Chair of the REF Social Work and Social Policy and Administration panel, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science’s Sociology and Social Policy Section. In 2009 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, only one of six academics in his discipline to receive this honour.
Professor Dame Julia M Goodfellow, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kent, said: ‘Professor Taylor-Gooby is one of the world’s leading social scientists and social policy experts. His expertise and reputation have helped to raise the international profile of social sciences at Kent. I congratulate him on his well-deserved Honour.’