Jonathan Potter
banner
profjonathanpotter.bsky.social
Jonathan Potter
@profjonathanpotter.bsky.social

Rutgers distinguished emeritus professor, discursive psychologist, now back in the UK.

Views everyone else’s (see Barthes, etc).

Currently building an emotionography for American Psychological Association Books with @alexahepburn.bsky.social .. more

Jonathan Potter is a British psychologist and Dean of the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University. He is one of the pioneers of discursive psychology.

Source: Wikipedia
Psychology 41%
Communication & Media Studies 26%
Pinned
The cover has arrived! Emotionography!
Emotions studied as they’re done in interaction - displayed, taken up, used.
@alexahepburn.bsky.social

Thank you!

More details soon.

Reposted by Sally Wiggins

And now decompressing after an excellent workshop (and a cheeky visit to Stockholm, of course). Love it that @profsalwiggins.bsky.social managed to sneak in! DP royalty! @alexahepburn.bsky.social

Reposted by Alexa Hepburn

Off to Sweden (again!) with @alexahepburn.bsky.social to join Katerina Eriksson Barajas and colleagues in Linköping for two days teaching Discursive Psychology: data sessions, analysis, and lively discussion. Excited to reconnect with old friends and new ideas.
#discursivepsychology #EMCA

Reposted by Andrew Livingstone

Important, painful, and still timely!
How did a high-stakes meeting between Trump, Vance& Zelenskyy turn from diplomacy to open confrontation?
Lotte van Burgsteden, @christelvaneck.bsky.social &I unpack conversational polarisation as it unfolded live in the Oval Office. @polcommjournal.bsky.social contains link to transcript #openaccess
www.tandfonline.com
How did a high-stakes meeting between Trump, Vance& Zelenskyy turn from diplomacy to open confrontation?
Lotte van Burgsteden, @christelvaneck.bsky.social &I unpack conversational polarisation as it unfolded live in the Oval Office. @polcommjournal.bsky.social contains link to transcript #openaccess
www.tandfonline.com
⚠️NEW "Communicating anaphylaxis risk in pediatric allergy consultations"

Adrenaline prescription decisions are complex. Making reasoning explicit opens up decision-making to caregivers.

doi.org/10.1016/j.pe... @profjonathanpotter.bsky.social @alexahepburn.bsky.social @colinmacdougall.bsky.social
🚨NEW SPECIAL SECTION
Clinical risk discussions: an interactional perspective

- 7 novel papers (6 medical specialties)
- 1 report on CA training for high-stakes risk communication
- 1 expert clinical discussant

doi.org/10.1016/j.pe... #emca @profjonathanpotter.bsky.social @alexahepburn.bsky.social

Reposting as still relevant. And pondering May Mailman’s extraordinary attack on universities on behalf of Trump captured in the NYT.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/25/o...

#9
If we want universities to defend society against pseudoscience & conspiracy (ever more needed), they need sustained support rather than caricatured takedowns.

#8
Lazy claims about squeamishness or bias obscure the real bind: govt frameworks + financial erosion + political hostility particularly from the right. That is what’s crippling UK universities.

#7
It’s glib to sneer at “VR caves” or gender theory syllabi. The real crisis is a system trying to do more with less while navigating hostile policy & public misunderstanding.

Reposted by John Drury

#6
Staff precarity, casualisation, and burnout don’t come from “fashionable taboos.” They come from impossible workloads, insecure contracts, and too much compliance paperwork.

#5
The gap has been filled by international students. Now govt policy in the form of visa restrictions, and hostile rhetoric is driving them away. This is financial self-sabotage.

#4
Meanwhile central funding has been hollowed out. Domestic fees frozen since 2017 while costs rise steeply. Govt support shrinks year by year.

#3
REF, TEF, KEF aren’t abstract acronyms. They tie every university to govt metrics: research outputs, teaching “excellence,” knowledge exchange. All policed, all audited. They are good and bad, but any serious criticism of universities in the UK needs to address their role.

Reposted by John Drury

#2
Marriott paints universities as indulgent, decadent, and squeamish. But the reality is very different: an over-regulated, underfunded system caught between REF, TEF, KEF, and shrinking resources.
#1
Following on from my earlier thread about claims of “bias” in universities (link below 👇), I was struck by James Marriott’s column in today’s Times. It’s full of anecdote & caricature. The real story of UK universities is structural, financial, and political. 🧵
👉 bsky.app/profile/prof...
Listening to Rest is Politics, Rest is Politics US, and reading respected commentators, it's striking how 'left-wing bias' in universities is now taken for granted. That matters, especially in the US, where academia faces political attack. Thoughts from having worked in US/UK universities. 🧵

Reposted by Jonathan Potter

“With deep roots in Western history, and blossoming in the 20th century, we find a widely shared belief in the ideal of what can be termed a unified self,” writes Kenneth Gergen. | https://bit.ly/4n5Rfm2

Gergen argues that the desire for self-unity is ultimately mistaken.

#socsky #philsky
There is no unified self | Kenneth Gergen
Throughout history the West has promoted the unified self. Whether it is the Christian emphasis on inner purity or the rationalist focus on eliminating contradictions in thought and reason, we have lo...
iai.tv

Wonderful!

Excellent thesis! Now the publications! 😊
'Why do people riot?'

New from me in @theconversation.com, summarizing our recent work funded by @ukri.org & @behaviourresuk.bsky.social

theconversation.com/why-do-peopl...
Why do people riot?
An expert in crowd psychology explains why some peaceful protests turn violent, and why riots can spread.
theconversation.com

Reposted by Jonathan Potter

Reposted by Jonathan Potter

New book out! A great resource. I have a chapter in here called Listening to talk in interaction: ways of observing speech. It’s written for people who are familiar with conversation analysis and want to know more about phonetic approaches to conversational data.

Reposted by Alexa Hepburn

Aija Logren kicks off the Finnish Social Psychology conference. An exciting group!
@alexahepburn.bsky.social

Will do!

In lovely Kuopio getting ready for the Finnish Social Psychology Conference. Exciting!
@alexahepburn.bsky.social
@darg-sessions.bsky.social
@rucalteam.bsky.social
#emotionography

There is an increasingly common and very lazy notion that universities are left biased. That needs countering as universities are under attack in the US but also elsewhere.

I wrote a thread about it.
Listening to Rest is Politics, Rest is Politics US, and reading respected commentators, it's striking how 'left-wing bias' in universities is now taken for granted. That matters, especially in the US, where academia faces political attack. Thoughts from having worked in US/UK universities. 🧵
'Universities exist to foster and disseminate research, learning and critical analysis.' But this rarely comes across in recent media discussions of higher education says @eicathomefinn.bsky.social - a Vice President of @britishacademy.bsky.social
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...
To save UK higher education, start talking about knowledge - Research Professional News
Until debate on universities foregrounds their core purposes, their woes will deepen, says Margot Finn
www.researchprofessionalnews.com