Dr Alex Rhys-Taylor BSc, MA, PhD, PGCert
Staff details

Alex Rhys-Taylor is a sociologist with a specialism in urban sociology and a particular focus on the relationship between our experiences of cities and histories of change. His work focusses on the multisensory experience of urban space the new forms of association and exclusion mediated through it. He is also engaged in research looking at the the role of cities in disrupting and transforming territories on a wider scale. Committed to the crafting of innovative methods and experimental approaches to urban research, Alex also draws extensively on a long tradition of urban sociology. He teaches on the MA Cities and Society programme.
Publications and research outputs
Book
Rhys-Taylor, Alex. 2017. Food and Multiculture: A Sensory Ethnography of East London. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781472581181
Edited Book
Bates, Charlotte and Rhys-Taylor, Alex, eds. 2016. Walking Through Social Research. Routledge. ISBN 978-1138674042
Book Section
Rhys-Taylor, Alex. 2021. Walking, Cadence and Urban Rhythms. In: Anita Strasser and Carla Duarte, eds. Walking Places - Conference Proceedings. Lisbon: DINÂMIA’CET-IUL, pp. 1-6. ISBN 9789897813092
Rhys-Taylor, Alex. 2018. Coming to Our Senses: Multiculturalism, Urban Sociology and The Other Senses. In: Sue Nichols and Stephen Dobson, eds. Learning Cities. 8 Singapore: Springer, pp. 23-37. ISBN 9789811080982
Rhys-Taylor, Alex. 2018. Petticoat Lane Al Fresco. In: Claire Armistead, ed. A Tale of Two Londons. London: Or Books. ISBN 978-1-682191-36-1
Gabrys, Jennifer. 2017. Air Walk: Monitoring Pollution and Experimenting with Speculative Forms of Participation. In: Charlotte Bates and Alex Rhys-Taylor, eds. Walking Through Social Research. Routledge. ISBN 1138674044
Rhys-Taylor, Alex. 2017. Westfield Stratford City: A Walk Through Millennial Urbanism. In: Alex Rhys-Taylor and Charlotte Bates, eds. Walking Through Social Research. London: Routledge, pp. 104-127. ISBN 9781138674042
Knowles, Caroline. 2017. Walking W8 in Manalos. In: Charlotte Bates and Alex Rhys-Taylor, eds. Walking Through Social Research. London: Routledge. ISBN 9781138674042
Rhys-Taylor, Alex. 2014. Urban Sensations: A Retrospective of Multisensory Drift. In: David Howes, ed. A Cultural History of the Senses in the Modern Age, 1920-2000. London, New York: Bloomsbury, pp. 1-13. ISBN 9780857853448
Rhys-Taylor, Alex; Jackson, Emma and Jones, Hannah. 2014. Moving and Being Moved. In: Emma Jackson and Hannah Jones, eds. Emotion and Location: Stories of Cosmopolitan Belonging. London, New York: Earthscan Routledge, pp. 1-10. ISBN 978-1-13-800065-0
Rhys-Taylor, Alex. 2014. Intersemiotic fruit: Mangoes and Multiculture. In: Emma Jackson and Hannah Jones, eds. Emotion and Location: Stories of Cosmopolitan Belonging. London, New York: Earthscan Routledge, pp. 44-54. ISBN 978-1-13-800065-0
Article
Rhys-Taylor, Alex. 2016. Food and urbanism: the convivial city and sustainable future (review). Social and Cultural Geography, 18(2), pp. 291-292. ISSN 1464-9365
Rhys-Taylor, Alex. 2013. The essences of multiculture: A sensory exploration of an inner-city street market. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 20(4), pp. 393-406. ISSN 1070-289X
Rhys-Taylor, Alex. 2013. Disgust and Distinction: The case of the jellied eel. The Sociological Review, 61(2), pp. 227-246. ISSN 0038-0261
Broadcast
Rhys-Taylor, Alex. 2014. Sensory Multiculturalism in an East End Market; Thinking Allowed - BBC Radio 4.
Rhys-Taylor, Alex. 2013. Multicultural Prisons and Jellied Eels.
Thesis
Rhys-Taylor, Alex. 2010. Coming to Our Senses: A Multi-sensory Ethnography of Class and Multiculture in East London. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London