Jen Webb

Bio: Jen Webb is an academic researcher from University of Canberra. The author has contributed to research in topics: Creative writing & The arts. The author has an hindex of 8, co-authored 67 publications receiving 412 citations. Previous affiliations of Jen Webb include University of Wollongong & Central Queensland University.

Bourdieu's concept of reflexivity as metaliteracy

Abstract: For Bourdieu, the extent to which agents can attain knowledge of, and negotiate, various cultural fields is dependent upon, and explicable in terms of, two epistemological types. The first is a practical sense (the ‘logic of practice’), while the second involves a sort of conscious comprehension that he names ‘reflexivity’. Bourdieu defines reflexivity as an interrogation of the three types of limitations (of social position, of field and of the scholastic point of view) that are constitutive of knowledge itself. But the reflexive relation to the habitus, the demands and influences exerted by cultural fields, and one's own practices within those fields, cannot be understood simply as something that is obtained by the subject; rather, any reflexive relation to the doxa and illusio of the field must be a constitutive part of that field. This paper identifies a number of principles taken from Bourdieu's work that clarify how, where and why the reflexive ‘surpassing’ of literacy might occur. But we also sugge...

Understanding the visual

Abstract: Introduction Visual Technologies Communication and the Visual Visual Narratives Visual Art, Visual Culture Normalizing Vision Selling the Visual The Media as Spectacle

Understanding Foucault: A critical introduction

Abstract: 'An outstandingly good introduction to Foucault's work: lucid, measured, well organised, and covering this complex and in many ways heterogeneous body of work with remarkable thoroughness and ease.' - Professor John Frow, University of MelbourneMichel Foucault is now regarded as one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. He is known for his sensibility of critique and his commitment to movements for social change. His analysis of the ways our notions of truth, meaning, knowledge and reason are shaped by historical forces continues to influence thinkers around the world.Understanding Foucault offers a comprehensive introduction to Foucault's work. The authors examine Foucault's thinking in the context of the philosophies he engaged with during his career, and the events he participated in, including the student protests of 1968. A unique feature of the book is its consideration of the recently published lectures and minor works, and the authors show how these illuminate and extend our understanding of Foucault's major books.Understanding Foucault provides an accessible entree to the world of this extraordinary and challenging philosopher.

Some Kind of Virus: the Zombie as Body and as Trope

Abstract: ‘Zombies are cool’, said a graduate student at a recent seminar. ‘Zombies are vile’, said a film studies lecturer. ‘Zombies are whitey’s way of expressing the terror of alterity’, said a presenter at a recent conference. All true, perhaps. There are many points of attraction in the zombie character, and in a period when zombies seem to be permeating popular culture and emerging in scholarly literature, there are perhaps as many ways of approaching and evaluating zombies as there are people who approach and evaluate. Those ‘people’ include novelists, movie-makers, cultural theorists, adolescents, philosophers, and the mass of fans, each of whom has a solid idea about what constitutes a zombie, what constitutes a seminal zombie text, and why it is worth researching zombies. Because the idea of zombie travels so widely, and across so many fields, it has become a very familiar character, one that participates in narratives of the body, of life and death, of good and evil; one that gestures to alterity, racism, species-ism, the inescapable, the immutable. Thus it takes us to ‘the other side’ – alienation, death, and what is worse than death: the state of being undead. But what is this thing called zombie? Although they are, of course, a fantasy, we know enormous amounts about them – their tastes, appearance, biology,

Bourdieu's Notion of Reflexive Knowledge

Abstract: This article addresses Pierre Bourdieu's work on the principal logics under which human beings negotiate fields and engage in practice: either practical or reflexive knowledge. Bourdieu argues that reflexivity is capable of being taught and learned, and consciously incorporated into different levels of praxis. We describe and analyse the paths Bourdieu takes in arriving at this notion via both the usual suspects associated with his body of theory (field, habitus, illusio, capital) and the theoretical specificities associated with reflexive knowledge--most importantly, the distinction made between science, practical reason and the 'scholastic point of view'. Drawing particularly on his recent (translated) works Weight of the World and Pascalian Meditations , we extend his discussion of agency as it relates to habitus, the objectivities engendered by fields, and the 'game' of social intercourse.

Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism

Abstract: (1995). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. History of European Ideas: Vol. 21, No. 5, pp. 721-722.

The Practice Of Everyday Life

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From monkey-like action recognition to human language: an evolutionary framework for neurolinguistics.

Abstract: The article analyzes the neural and functional grounding of language skills as well as their emergence in hominid evolution, hypothesizing stages leading from abilities known to exist in monkeys and apes and presumed to exist in our hominid ancestors right through to modern spoken and signed languages. The starting point is the observation that both premotor area F5 in monkeys and Broca's area in humans contain a "mirror system" active for both execution and observation of manual actions, and that F5 and Broca's area are homologous brain regions. This grounded the mirror system hypothesis of Rizzolatti and Arbib (1998) which offers the mirror system for grasping as a key neural "missing link" between the abilities of our nonhuman ancestors of 20 million years ago and modern human language, with manual gestures rather than a system for vocal communication providing the initial seed for this evolutionary process. The present article, however, goes "beyond the mirror" to offer hypotheses on evolutionary changes within and outside the mirror sys- tems which may have occurred to equip Homo sapiens with a language-ready brain. Crucial to the early stages of this progression is the mirror system for grasping and its extension to permit imitation. Imitation is seen as evolving via a so-called simple system such as that found in chimpanzees (which allows imitation of complex "object-oriented" sequences but only as the result of extensive practice) to a so-called complex system found in humans (which allows rapid imitation even of complex sequences, under appropriate conditions) which supports pantomime. This is hypothesized to have provided the substrate for the development of protosign, a combinatorially open reper- toire of manual gestures, which then provides the scaffolding for the emergence of protospeech (which thus owes little to nonhuman vo- calizations), with protosign and protospeech then developing in an expanding spiral. It is argued that these stages involve biological evo- lution of both brain and body. By contrast, it is argued that the progression from protosign and protospeech to languages with full-blown syntax and compositional semantics was a historical phenomenon in the development of Homo sapiens, involving few if any further bio- logical changes.

The conscious mind: In search of a fundamental theory

Abstract: A clutch of '-isms' characterises the approach to consciousness which David Chalmers defends: dualism, epiphenomenalism, functionalism, anti-reductionism, and -probably -panpsychism. (The author would no doubt want 'naturalism' included in the list as well, but as we shall see, Chalmers' predilection to describe his theory as 'scientific' stretches credibility.) While the book does not, as far as I can see, move consciousness research significantly forward, Chalmers succeeds admirably in clarifying the philosophical terrain around and within each of these '-isms' and in questioning the usual assumptions which suggest some of them are mutually exclusive. Because nearly all of what follows is highly critical, I want to be explicit about one thing: I do not think this is a bad book. Throughout, most discussions keep to a very high standard; it's just that they include fatal flaws.