Steve Taylor
Biographic Data
| ID | 3604368 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Steve Taylor |
| GIVEN NAMES | Steve |
| FAMILY NAME | Taylor |
| SIGNATURE | TAYLOR S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Leeds Beckett University |
| ORCID | 0009-0007-4684-5956 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 80 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 265 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 79 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1962 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Living heritage and sustainable landscapes in rural Europe
Biosphere Reserves (BR) are regions designated by UNESCO and are cultural landscapes shaped by living heritages and communities. However, in Europe, the creation of sustainable BR landscapes has often neglected cultural heritage, and how it is contested and always in the making. This qualitative research focused on four rural European BRs in Czechia, Estonia, Norway and Scotland, working collaboratively with organisations of Třeboň, Nordhordland,…
South Asian Climate Transnationalism
South Asia is currently on the front line of the global climate emergency, with the region experiencing increasing, devastating crises resulting from climate change and ‘climate coloniality’ (Sultana, 2022). This article, drawing upon original qualitative research, explores the relationship between the South Asian diaspora and climate action within South Asia. We introduce and chart the nature and dynamics of contemporary South Asian climate tran…
Justice in tourism geographies
Tourism geographers have long addressed the spatiality of injustice, taking concern with the struggles over access to resources and capital that shape inequities in tourism-dominant landscapes. And yet, the substance of justice, that is, what we really mean by ‘justice’ is rarely discussed, with tourism geographers possessing a hesitancy to engage in the constitution of justice, preferring practice-informed ‘bottom up’ identifications. This artic…
Visualizing online climate change activism
Digital technology is changing the world. This article analyses visual images to learn with and from the social media presence of two Christian organizations as they respond to the climate challenges facing our planet. The article demonstrates how online visual images are a public theology that communicates activist journeys, intergenerational participation and prayer integrated into climate justice. The research makes a novel contribution to the…
A New Day for Perennialism
This paper argues for a ‘perennial phenomenology’ (or ‘soft’ perennialism) varying from the traditionalist notion of a ‘perennial philosophy.’ Perennial phenomenology offers a more nuanced form of perennialism that focuses on spiritual/mystical experiences rather than the teachings and beliefs of different religions. While teachings and beliefs vary greatly, the mystical experiences associated with different mystical traditions have striking comm…
Solitude Without Loneliness
The reason why fear of loneliness is not ubiquitous is because loneliness is essentially an experience of “ego-separation.” Ego-separation exists on a continuum. While it may be extreme in some people, some people may experience little or no ego-separation, and so be less prone to loneliness. On the contrary, such people embrace and relish solitude and inactivity, with no distressing effects. I refer to Maslow’s concept of self-actualization and …
Towards an ethical tourism recovery in Northern peripheries
Unsustainable tourism growth prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and disruption of tourism caused by its outbreak, together with the global environmental crisis and different global and local injustices, have raised debates on what tourism should be like in the future. A more ethical tourism sector post-recovery has become a topical issue for strategy making in post-pandemic tourism. In this research note, we tie together local stakeholder views on et…
Theologies of Fulfillment in a Reciprocal Study of Relationships between John Laughton and Rua Kēnana in Aotearoa New Zealand
Crossing the borders of religion presents challenges and provides opportunities. This article presents a contextualized case study from Aotearoa New Zealand, examining the lifelong relationship between Presbyterian missionary Rev. John “Hoani” Laughton (1891–1965) and Māori leader Rua Kēnana (1869–1937). Photography, as a tool in discerning lived theologies, suggests a side-by-side relationship of reciprocity and particularity. Relationships acro…
Diasporic engagement and the climate crisis in Kerala
India has been identified as one of the most vulnerable countries within the global climate crisis. Kerala has been highlighted as a hotspot of climate vulnerability within India, and this was illustrated by the floods of 2018. Nearly, 500 people lost their lives during the floods and 1.4 million were displaced, with the reconstruction programme still taking place today. Anecdotal andmedia accounts have suggested that the Keralan diaspora played …
Putting communities and citizens at the heart of what we do - The development of a continuum of integration within a locality in the Northwest of the UK to enhance health well-being and reduce inequal…
The Northwest of England has seen health inequality and poor health outcome be a persistent feature for the population. The area has gained economic advancement in recent decades, but these have not been equally shared, and many population groups suffer disproportionately (1). Rochdale is a multi-ethnic locality within Greater Manchester. Around a quarter of local people have at least one or more long-term conditions and a third of residents live…
Transition numérique et fréquentation des espaces de montagne
Ce numéro spécial du Journal of Alpine Research | Revue de géographie alpine s’inscrit dans le champ des travaux portant sur les effets de la transition numérique sur la fréquentation et la gestion des territoires de montagne. L’entrée de nos sociétés dans une ère numérique a eu des effets directs et indirects sur différentes facettes de nos quotidiens (Sciadas, 2006) qui sont désormais intégralement accompagnés par des objets connectés, mais aus…
The Digital Transition and Use of Mountain Spaces
This special issue of the Journal of Alpine Research|Revue de géographie alpine is part of a series of studies on the effects of the digital transition on the use and management of mountain areas. The entry of our societies into a digital era has had direct or indirect effects on various facets of our daily lives (Sciadas, 2006), which are now entirely accompanied by digital devices, but also by the data they produce and which we voluntarily shar…
Toward a Utopian Society
The essence of any psychologically healthy society—and the basis of the utopian or eupsychian society envisaged by Abraham Maslow—is an individual state of empathic connection that gives rise to qualities such as compassion, responsibility, justice, fairness, and equality. Opposed to this, is a psychological state of hyperindividuation and psychological disconnection, that generates traits of selfishness and a lack of empathy, compassion, and con…
Measuring an Ongoing State of Wakefulness
Objectives: This study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire assessing an ongoing state of wakefulness, a psychological state occurring in secular and spiritual contexts. Wakefulness is an expansive, self-transcendent, relatively stable state of being in which a person’s perception of and relationship to the world are transformed. No such questionnaire with this specific aim and scope exists. Methods: Characteristics of wakefulness from p…
Consumer culture and symbolic capital in a differentiated Pakistani transnational community
Drawing on original qualitative data this article analyses fluid and shifting notions of symbolic capital within the Pakistani diaspora in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. Focusing on the South Asian concept of izzat (honour/prestige) it is argued that the field of local symbolic prestige is adapting to the macro context laid down by consumer culture as its mechanisms permeate the structural, cultural and everyday lives of this transnatio…
Durkheim and social realism
The term positivism has a long and varied history and is often used loosely. The imbalance of egoism, altruism, anomie, and fatalism could not be perceived by sensory perception, but had to be penetrated by special methods. Medical sociologists do not avoid theorizing simply by claiming to reject it on the grounds that they are researchers concerned only with the real, or empirical, world. The theoretical assumptions that are made structure the s…
Tourism and coastal & maritime cultural heritage
Coastal and Maritime Cultural Heritage (CMCH) is an important asset in coastal areas. However, this heritage has been exposed to several environmental and human-created threats. This paper presents three European coastal regions with relevant CMCH and important tourism destinations: Ria de Aveiro (Portugal), the Small Isles (Scotland, UK) and Marsaxlokk (Malta). The paper draws attention to the challenges to CMCH they face, the dynamics between t…
Te Hāhi Mihinare
Flow, satisfaction and storytelling
The popularity of activity-based tourism is often explained by experiential concepts such as flow. By using a mixed-methods approach, this study investigates how the storytelling intentions of scuba diving tourists are influenced by their flow experience. The mediating role of satisfaction and the moderating role of scuba diving experience level are further examined in this relationship. To test these hypotheses, interviews with 20 scuba divers a…
Transformation through loss and grief
The cases of 16 individuals (12 women and 4 men) who reported powerful transformational experiences following bereavement were examined, using a mixed methods approach, including a qualitative thematic analysis of interviews and 2 psychometric scales. Both approaches found significant evidence of positive personal change. Prevalent themes included a sense of permanent transformation, a less materialistic attitude, a different attitude to death, a…
Forest bathing as a mindful tourism practice
In the troubled times in which we currently live, the tourism industry has called into question a need for more responsible social practices and more mindful utilisation of natural environments. The Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, has not only become a new wellness trend, but also a great potential for deeply immersive tourist experiences. While there is a wealth of studies examining the positive effects of forest bathing fo…
Living in the moment’
As a popular adventure sport worldwide, mountain biking provides a range of challenges and opportunities for participants. This paper aims to understand whether experienced riders actively search for ‘flow experiences’ that can manifest themselves in a range of euphoric feelings, varying from the loss of awareness of time to sub-conscious control over actions. Exploring findings from research undertaken in New Zealand and England, the paper sugge…
Channelling the darkness
Although they superficially belong to different genres of music, Black Sabbath and Joy Division share a fundamental commonality in that their music was shaped by – and powerfully depicted – bleak urban industrial environments. This article highlights a number of specific ways in which both bands’ music depicted (and was influenced by) this environment, including an unusually bass-heavy sound, the repetitive and continuous quality of their music, …
Shaping tourists’ wellbeing through guided slow adventures
Against the backdrop of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 3, good health and wellbeing, this paper reports on a study that examined how outdoor guides perceive their role in facilitating the psychological wellbeing of tourists who consume slow adventure experiences. These experiences, such as canoeing, stargazing or foraging, are characterised by a slower passage of time, immersion in the natural world and a sense of belonging to s…
When ‘#xmasangels’ Tweet
Craftivism combines craft and activism. This paper contributes to the field of contemporary culture, mission, and creative making by examining the Christmas Angels project, in which local churches yarn-bomb hand-knitted angels, as an ecclesial expression of craftivism. Recipient responses to this fresh expression of Christian witness are analysed by examination of over 1,100 ‘#xmasangel’ tweets. Analysis reveals a found theology, in which angels …
Emotional Labour and Sexual Difference in the Airline Industry
This paper examines service work within the contemporary airline industry which has recently been shaped by managerial initiatives aiming to deliver ‘quality service’. We focus upon the gendered consequences of this. On the basis of original empirical research, three specific arguments are advanced: firstly, recent competitive pressures and accompanying managerial initiatives are intensifying demands upon female employees for the production of em…
Durkheim and the Study of Suicide
The Exchange of Aesthetics
Drawing on empirical research data on the work of flight attendants, this paper will explore Marcel Mauss's theory of ‘gift’ exchange relations, with particular reference to his concern with the ‘exchange of aesthetics’ (Mauss 1954), as an analytical model which may contribute to our understanding of ‘women's work’ in contemporary Western societies, of which, we shall argue, the work of female flight attendants is a notable example. It will begin…
Expert Witnesses
Forest bathing as a mindful tourism practice
In the troubled times in which we currently live, the tourism industry has called into question a need for more responsible social practices and more mindful utilisation of natural environments. The Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, has not only become a new wellness trend, but also a great potential for deeply immersive tourist experiences. While there is a wealth of studies examining the positive effects of forest bathing fo…
Searching for ontological security
Drawing upon a decade of empirical research, this article examines changing meanings of 'home' and ontological security amongst a diasporic British Indian Punjabi community. It is argued that home is pursued, transnationally, by British South Asians and that this is significantly shaped by the dynamic social context of South Asia as well as social processes within Britain and across the South Asian diaspora. Previous studies of Punjabi and South …
Extending the Dream Machine’
A popular and accessible form of adventure recreation, mountain biking is enjoyed for a wide range of reasons, and different settings offer multifarious attributes that enable mountain bikers’ motivations to be satisfied. This article outlines the findings of qualitative research of experienced and regular mountain bikers in New Zealand and the UK. A general inductive method was employed to condense findings into key themes and sub‐themes, and to…
Migration, development and inequality
Drawing on original, ethnographic research in India and the UK, in this article we discuss the impact of transnational activity on the Doaba region of East Punjab, India. We argue that some recent studies have underplayed some of the less progressive consequences of Indian transnationalism. In particular, we contend that they have underestimated the extent of division between transnational migrants and Indian non-migrants and downplayed the relat…
Bringing it 'Home'? Sociological Practice and the Practice of Sociology
Since Sociology was established in 1967, the journal has assumed a significant role in shaping the discipline. In the interim years it is often said that the very practice of sociology has now 'spun out' beyond the dedicated departments that were once the centres of sociological practice. This raises questions as to the relationship between sociology and other disciplines, questions that are compelling and arguably distinct from a welcome recogni…
Transformation Through Suffering
This article summarizes a study of 32 individuals who experienced psychological transformation following periods of intense turmoil and trauma in their lives. Several individuals reported temporary spiritual experiences following turmoil, but the majority underwent a permanent psychological transformation. These experiences are termed suffering-induced transformational experiences (SITEs). The types of trauma that featured included intense stress…
All in the family
Attacking the Cultural Turn
Service work is often (mis)represented within western sociology through hyperbolic language, as its increasing incidence and changing character is seen as symptomatic of profound social change. This paper argues that many recent empirical investigations into, and the dominant representations of, the service encounter (employment involving employee-customer interaction which is represented as a particularly 'new' form of work) exaggerate its novel…
Religious Conversion and Dalit Assertion among a Punjabi Dalit Diaspora
Drawing upon original ethnographic research amongst Punjabi Dalit communities within the UK and India, this paper examines post-transnational migration religious conversion from Sikhism to neo-Buddhism and Christianity, assessing the extent to which this process is simultaneously one of Dalit assertion and resistance to caste-based oppression, thereby facilitating social change within the contemporary Punjabi transnational community. While it is …
Tourism and coastal & maritime cultural heritage
Coastal and Maritime Cultural Heritage (CMCH) is an important asset in coastal areas. However, this heritage has been exposed to several environmental and human-created threats. This paper presents three European coastal regions with relevant CMCH and important tourism destinations: Ria de Aveiro (Portugal), the Small Isles (Scotland, UK) and Marsaxlokk (Malta). The paper draws attention to the challenges to CMCH they face, the dynamics between t…
When Seconds Turn Into Minutes
Time Expansion Experiences (TEEs) occur when a person’s normal experience of time slows down or expands significantly. Previous research has associated them mainly with accidents but also with altered states of consciousness such as mystical experiences, psychedelic experiences, and near-death experiences. This article describes a qualitative study of 74 reports of “Time Expansion Experiences” (also a pilot study of 22 reports), which investigate…
The Diasporic Pursuit of Home and Identity
This paper examines the pursuit of home within a diasporic British Indian Punjabi community. It is argued that the British Asian transnational pursuit of home is significantly shaped by the dynamic social context of South Asia as well as social processes within Britain and across the South Asian diaspora. Drawing upon a decade of original, transnational, ethnographic research within the UK and India, I analyse the rapidly changing social context …
Toward a Utopian Society
The essence of any psychologically healthy society—and the basis of the utopian or eupsychian society envisaged by Abraham Maslow—is an individual state of empathic connection that gives rise to qualities such as compassion, responsibility, justice, fairness, and equality. Opposed to this, is a psychological state of hyperindividuation and psychological disconnection, that generates traits of selfishness and a lack of empathy, compassion, and con…
Measuring an Ongoing State of Wakefulness
Objectives: This study aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire assessing an ongoing state of wakefulness, a psychological state occurring in secular and spiritual contexts. Wakefulness is an expansive, self-transcendent, relatively stable state of being in which a person’s perception of and relationship to the world are transformed. No such questionnaire with this specific aim and scope exists. Methods: Characteristics of wakefulness from p…
Consumer culture and symbolic capital in a differentiated Pakistani transnational community
Drawing on original qualitative data this article analyses fluid and shifting notions of symbolic capital within the Pakistani diaspora in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. Focusing on the South Asian concept of izzat (honour/prestige) it is argued that the field of local symbolic prestige is adapting to the macro context laid down by consumer culture as its mechanisms permeate the structural, cultural and everyday lives of this transnatio…
Living in the moment’
As a popular adventure sport worldwide, mountain biking provides a range of challenges and opportunities for participants. This paper aims to understand whether experienced riders actively search for ‘flow experiences’ that can manifest themselves in a range of euphoric feelings, varying from the loss of awareness of time to sub-conscious control over actions. Exploring findings from research undertaken in New Zealand and England, the paper sugge…
A Diasporic Indian Community
This paper examines a UK Jat Sikh Punjabi diasporic community. Existing studies of such communities focus upon processes of identity formation within the UK. We suggest that British Asian identities are shaped by social processes within South Asia as well as the UK. In particular, we argue that meanings of home, amongst the UK diasporic group studied, are being importantly shaped by dynamic social and cultural processes within East Punjab. Becaus…
Suicide and the Renewal of Life
Social Factors and the Validation of Thought
In the earlier period of modern thought social elements in knowledge were conceived of as obstructions to objectivity. Hence, a chief problem of the thinker was their systematic elimination. However, with Durkheim, G. H. Mead, and Mannheim came the realization that all thought is inextricably bound up with social structures and the perspectives these imply. What began as a concern with features of contingency in knowledge has developed into a soc…
Suicide and the Renewal of Life
Some Critiques of Official Suicide Rates
The suicide rates have always played a most important part in suicide research. They have been looked upon as the perfect instrument for measuring and comparing the size of the suicide problem in populations ... Two years ago, in a symposium at Washington, a distinguished sociologist dismissed doubts about their reliability and comparability as part of the folklore of psychiatry. 1
Postscript
Since the completion of this text, J. Baechler’s Suicides, which makes an important contribution to the interpretative approach to suicide discussed in Chapter 6, has appeared in English translation (trans. B. Cooper, Blackwell, 1979). Baechler argues that we must begin with the assumption that ‘men make their own destinies’ and that suicidal actions must be seen as rational responses to life problems: not so much an end, but rather a means to an…
Durkheim’s Suicide
The spirit of scientific endeavour and the growth of scientific knowledge in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries increasingly drew the observer towards the conclusion that, as Morris puts it, ‘the things and events he experienced were determined and controlled by forces within the world rather than outside it’.1 The spectacular advances of the natural sciences led many to the belief that diligent application of the same principles and proced…
Persons under Trains
The problem in this part of the research was to try to hold one set of variables, the circumstances surrounding the actual death, constant in order to explore better the effect of those relating to the history of the deceased. This meant examining a number of cases where the manner of death was more or less the same. A number of ways of dying could be excluded: drowning for example, because where the deceased was discovered, whether or not he cou…
Proving Suicide
In the previous chapter it was argued that the questions students have raised about the viability of official suicide statistics for research purposes could only be answered by more systematic study. Official statistics are products of the system of theoretical categories in terms of which they are compiled and the bureaucratic and organisational procedures by which they are collected. Their evaluation for research, therefore, involves considerat…
Individualistic Approaches to Suicide
In Part II it was argued that official suicide rates do not provide a source of data which is suitable for the sort of suicide research typically undertaken by sociologists. In the quest for alternative approaches this chapter, under the rather arbitrary label of individualistic approaches, examines first, some avenues explored by more ‘psychologically orientated’ students and second, some studies by those who favour more ‘interpretative’ methodo…
The Sociologistic Perspective on Suicide
It is a popular view that Suicide has had a profound and celebrated influence not only on the sociology of suicide, but also on the general development of the discipline. Merton, for example, referred to it as perhaps the greatest piece of sociological research ever done, 1 while Selvin has claimed that ‘the empirical analysis in Suicide is as vital today as it was in 1897 — perhaps more so’. 2 However, although Suicide helped to shape a distinct…
General Conclusions
The research undertaken in this book has suggested, in opposition to Durkheim and the sociological tradition apparently following him, that official suicide rates are a most inappropriate source of data for suicide research and that suicidal actions will not be satisfactorily explained without reference to the actor’s intentions and the micro-social context of his action. However, this view of sociological studies did not lead to an acceptance …
Suicide and the Gamble with Death
Despite the shortcomings and ambiguities in Douglas’s own attempts to analyse the social meanings of suicide, he was quite right to stress the importance of more descriptive material on suicidal actions, communications, etc. 1 This is not to concur with the view that there are on the one hand (legitimate) descriptions of ‘real world’ phenomena and on the other (illegitimate) ‘fictional’ descriptions obtained through predefined ‘scientific’, or bu…
The Ordeal and the Sacrifice
This chapter is concerned with the development of an alternative social-psychological approach to suicide. Typically sociological approaches have been associated with the analysis of suicide rates, while the few alternative critical studies have tended to be neo-phenomenological, or ‘interpretative’, thus reflecting a more general debate in the social sciences between ‘positivism’ and ‘subjectivism’. What is common to both parties in this dispute…
Durkheim and the Study of Suicide
Shorter Notices
Max Weber and Karl Marx
Durkheim et le suicide
Inter-Agency Conflict in Child Abuse Work—Reducing Tensions between Social Workers and Health Visitors
Expert Witnesses
Asking the Right Questions
The Exchange of Aesthetics
Drawing on empirical research data on the work of flight attendants, this paper will explore Marcel Mauss's theory of ‘gift’ exchange relations, with particular reference to his concern with the ‘exchange of aesthetics’ (Mauss 1954), as an analytical model which may contribute to our understanding of ‘women's work’ in contemporary Western societies, of which, we shall argue, the work of female flight attendants is a notable example. It will begin…
Sociology
Written by a star cast of contributors, this introductory undergraduate text provides students with a rich, stimulating and authoritative account of key debates and issues in sociology today. Carefull
Globalization
Globalization refers to the growing interdependence of different parts of the world. Globalization theories involve looking beyond nation states and the relations between them to social processes which result from social interaction on a world scale, such as the development of an increasingly Integrated global economy and the explosion of worldwide telecommunications. The aim of this chapter is to explain some of the different ways in which socio…
Chest-rubbing in captive woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagotricha)
Emotional Labour and Sexual Difference in the Airline Industry
This paper examines service work within the contemporary airline industry which has recently been shaped by managerial initiatives aiming to deliver ‘quality service’. We focus upon the gendered consequences of this. On the basis of original empirical research, three specific arguments are advanced: firstly, recent competitive pressures and accompanying managerial initiatives are intensifying demands upon female employees for the production of em…
Attacking the Cultural Turn
Service work is often (mis)represented within western sociology through hyperbolic language, as its increasing incidence and changing character is seen as symptomatic of profound social change. This paper argues that many recent empirical investigations into, and the dominant representations of, the service encounter (employment involving employee-customer interaction which is represented as a particularly 'new' form of work) exaggerate its novel…
Sociology (59 works) · Political science (36 works) · Psychology (34 works) · Philosophy (28 works) · Law (27 works) · Epistemology (24 works) · History (19 works) · Geography (18 works) · Politics (17 works) · Social Psychology (16 works)