A prolific writer of some sixteen books in anthropology, he is probably best known for his studies of local and organizational politics.
He conducted fieldwork in Bisipāra, Orissa, India,[2] and has also written on political functions, particularly the ways that social structure arises out of and is used by the interactions of individuals.
[3] In 1956, Bailey joined the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) as a lecturer and then a reader.
[4] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1976[5] At the time he was a professor at the University of Sussex.
Bailey continued to write and publish anthropological books for another decade after his official retirement.