Jonathan Potter
Professor of Discourse Analysis, Loughborough University
Jonathan
Potter is
Professor of Discourse Analysis in the Social Sciences Department at
Loughborough. He has studied topics such
as scientific argumentation, current affairs television, riots, racism,
relationship counselling and child protection helplines. His main focus recently has been on the study
of helpline interaction, on interaction during family mealtimes, on the
conceptualization of cognition in interaction research, and on issues of
psychology and institutions. He a world
authority on qualitative methods and has written on discourse analysis and
discursive psychology, focus groups, the study of psychological issues. He has taught workshops and short courses on
analysis in 10 different countries.
The hugely influential book Discourse
and Social Psychology (Sage, 1987, with Margaret
Wetherell) set out the basic features of a discourse approach to social
psychology. Other books include Mapping
the Language of Racism (Columbia University Press, 1992,
with Margaret Wetherell) that studied the way racial inequalities are
discursively legitimated; and Discursive
Psychology (Sage, 1992, with Derek Edwards) that developed foundational
principles for discursive psychology illustrated through a set of analyses of
political controversies. In Representing
Reality (Sage, 1996) he attempted to provide a systematic overview,
integration and critique of constructionist research in social science. He has published a practical guide to focus
group moderation based on analysis of what happens in actual focus groups (Focus
Group Practice, Sage,
2004, with Claudia Puchta).
He collaborated with Hedwig te Molder on a collection that
addresses fundamental issues that arise in the relationship between cognition
and interaction (Conversation
and Cognition, CUP, 2005). This work
received the inaugural book award for the Ethnomethodology
and Conversation Analysis section of the American Sociological Association.
The full citation
of the committee is here.
A three volume collection of 60 articles on Discourse and
Psychology was
published in the summer of 2007. A draft of the introduction to
volume 1 is available here.
He has published 10 books as well as many journal articles and
book chapters and is on the editorial board of 15 journals. His work has been cited more than four
thousand times in journals surveyed by the ISI.
He is advisory editor to the journal Theory
& Psychology.
In 2008 he was elected to the Academy of Social Sciences.
A recent lecture in which he highlights some features of
discursive psychology for a Critical Discourse Analysis audience is
available here. It includes questions from Ruth Wodak and
Teun van Dijk and his responses.
Information
and background material on books (including the full text of Social Texts and Context, and the new
preface and postscript to the Chinese edition of Discourse and Social Psychology) is available here:
Most recent
articles and some classics are available here:
For a range
of images of people and workshops:
Audio, video
and transcribed materials associated with publications.
Audio-video
materials and transcript
For
information and resources on transcription:
Some links:
Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis
Updated –
August 2008