We consider Taylor approximation for functors from the small category of finite pointed sets $\Gamma$ to modules and give an explicit description for the homology of the layers of the Taylor tower. These layers are shown to be fibrant objects in a suitable closed model category structure. Explicit calculations are presented in characteristic zero including an application to higher order Hochschild homology. A spectral sequence for the homology of the homotopy fibres of this approximation is provided.

We study the Taylor towers of the nth symmetric and exterior power functors, Spⁿ and Λⁿ. We obtain a description of the layers of the Taylor towers, $D_{k}Spⁿ$ and $D_k\Lambda ⁿ$, in terms of the first terms in the Taylor towers of $S{p}^t$ and ${\Lambda }^t$ for t < n. The homology of these first terms is related to the stable derived functors (in the sense of Dold and Puppe) of $S{p}^t$ and ${\Lambda }^t$. We use stable derived functor calculations of Dold and Puppe to determine the lowest nontrivial homology groups for $D_{k}Spⁿ$ and $D_k\Lambda ⁿ$.

The suspension and loop space functors, Σ and Ω, operate on the lattice of Bousfield classes of (sufficiently highly connected) topological spaces, and therefore generate a submonoid ℒ of the complete set of operations on the Bousfield lattice. We determine the structure of ℒ in terms of a single parameter of homotopy theory which is closely tied to the problem of desuspending weak cellular inequalities.