Mind The Tax with Dr Miranda Sheild Johansson

This podcast series is for all those curious about tax. Taxes are everywhere - when we get paid for work, when we consume, when we sell, when we inherit - we all pay, or evade, taxes. But what do taxes do, how do they shape our societies, relationships with each other, and even our sense of self?

Miranda Sheild Johansson, a Social Anthropologist working at UCL researches what she calls ‘the sociality of tax’.

This means not looking at economic models of taxes or focusing on how much revenue flows to the exchequer, but instead digging into the different ways that tax shapes our societies and relationships.

How taxes impact how we think about ourselves and the things we do - what kinds of work counts as proper work?

Taxes also shape our moral landscapes and perceptions about who contributes to society - who owes whom; where wealth is created; the place of the state in the lives of people.

In this podcast Miranda talks to academics and activists to explore the social side of tax.

Miranda at UCL:

https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/57922-miranda-sheild-johansson

UCL Anthropology Department:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-historical-sciences/anthropology/research/sociality-tax

Anthropology of Tax Network:

https://tax-anthro.net/

Download Anthropology of Tax, Ethnographies of Fiscal Relations, edited by Johanna Mugler, Universität Bern, Switzerland, Miranda Sheild Johansson, University College London, Robin Smith, Copenhagen Business School

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/anthropology-and-tax/93C973858A6DE6910C34E4C9ECD23F62

Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology - Tax:

https://www.anthroencyclopedia.com/entry/tax

This is a Sonoloom Podcast Production - www.sonoloom.com

• No. of episodes: 6
• Latest episode: 2026-09-22
• Government Science Social Sciences

Where can you listen?