Dr Matthew Adams BA (Hons) CPsychol

Principal Lecturer

contact:
Applied Social Science
Falmer
Brighton
BN1 9PH

Telephone: +44 (0)1273 644518

Email: Matthew.Adams@brighton.ac.uk

Research interests

• Culture, class and identity
• Consumption (including ethical consumption)
• Ecopsychology and human nature / non-human nature relationship
• Fatherhood
• Intersubjectivity
• Reflexivity
• Silence
• Psychosocial studies
• The dialogical self

Recent publications

Recent conference papers, public talks etc.

Adams, M. 'Denying responsibility for environmental problems: visualising the social and psychological dimensions'. British Sociological Association Annual Conference, Grand Connaught Rooms, London, 3-5 April 2013.

Adams, M. 'Dark mountaineers? A critical social psychology of environmental crisis'. International Congress of Critical Social Psychology: Discourse, Materiality and Politics Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 6-8 February 2013.

Adams, M. 'The view from a dark mountain: Narrative, defence mechanisms and the social organisation of denial'. 5th Psychosocial Studies Network Conference. Institute of Education, 17-18 December 2012.

Adams, M. 'Where's daddy? Findings from a content analysis of representations of parenting in young children's picturebooks in the UK'. Gender and Visual Representation Conference, Gender Research Centre, University of Winchester, 12 September 2012.

Adams, M. 'Being as nothingness? Reflexivity & new sociologies of class'. Workshop on Social Change: Theory and Applications (the case of Greek society). Hellenic Observatory, London School of Economics, 9 March 2012.

Adams, M. and Raisborough, J. 'Robin Hood comes to town… latte in hand: ethics and consumption'. Keynote presentation, Brighton Alumni Association Inaugural Event, Amex, Belgrave House, London, 26 September 2012.

Adams, M. and Raisborough, J. 'Between amity and antipathy: the stereotype content model and the fairtrade farmer' BPS Social Psychology Section Annual Conference 7-9 September 2010, The University of Winchester, Winchester, UK

Research supervision

Matt is interested in supervising research students with interests broadly matching his own research interests and history. Contact him directly in the first instance.

PhD supervision

• Natassia Ewington-Rogers – A psychosocial study of equestrianism (2011-current)
• Eduard Moreno – What are the emotional processes involved in deceased organ donation and how do they influence donor kin? (2010-current)
• Paul Hanna – Consuming sustainable tourism: ethics, identity, practice (PhD awarded 2012)

Background

Matt completed his PhD in 2001 at the Nottingham Trent University under the supervision of John Tomlinson and Mike Featherstone. The focus of his thesis was identity and social change, reflecting a longstanding critical interest in the conceptualisation of selfhood and subjectivity in social theory and the interface between sociology and psychology. After 2001 Matt held various research and teaching posts before joining the University of Brighton in 2003. In 2007 Sage published his book Self and Social Change, which draws on key approaches of recent years (Bourdieu, Butler, Foucault, Giddens etc.) to offer an account of identity in which class and other social structural divisions still loom large, though in socially novel ways. More recently he has published theoretical work on the social and psychological theorisation of various topics, and worked on the moral economies of various consumption and representation practices, often with Jayne Raisborough. Work-in-progress includes a growing interest in developing a psychosocial approach to the issue of human behaviour and ecological degradation, and the value of silence and illegibility for 'healthily' marginal identity positions.

Teaching

• Psychology subject leader
• Course leader for the Applied Psychology and Criminology degree
• Co-ordinator for SS617 Ecopsychology and SS509 Psychology, Cognition and Social Worlds
• Teaching across psychology, social psychology undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum