Jessica Francombe-Webb | University of Bath (original) (raw)

Blog & Media posts by Jessica Francombe-Webb

Papers by Jessica Francombe-Webb

Television & New Media, 2015

This article builds upon previous research into the Nintendo Wii game “We Cheer” through qualitat... more This article builds upon previous research into the Nintendo Wii game “We Cheer” through qualitative analysis of the lived experiences of young girls and their playing experiences. I argue here that this multi-layered approach is important as it allows for exploration of the nuances between representation and everyday lives, specifically when analyzing the complexity and contradictions related to the girls’ hetero-sexy embodiment and the process of becoming female in a (digital) culture still largely dominated by the sociocultural constitution of slenderness. Throughout the analysis, I aim to demonstrate the way in which the girls’ engagement with “We Cheer” was mediated by their own embodied sensemaking and work on the self. As such, I focus on the partial stories that the girls tell about their own embodied femininities to advance studies of media reception in ways that are arguably unique to interactive exer-games such as “We Cheer.”

New Sporting Femininities

Social Sciences

In this paper, we offer a new conceptual approach to analyzing the interrelations between formal ... more In this paper, we offer a new conceptual approach to analyzing the interrelations between formal and informal pedagogical sites for learning about youth mental (ill) health with a specific focus on digital health technologies. Our approach builds on an understanding of public pedagogy to examine the pedagogical modes of address (Ellsworth 1997) that are (i) produced through 'expert' discourses of mental health literacy for young people; and (ii) include digital practices created by young people as they seek to publicly address mental ill health through social media platforms. We trace the pedagogic modes of address that are evident in examples of digital mental health practices and the creation of what we call therapeutic publics. Through an analysis of mental health apps, we examine how these modes of address are implicated in the affective process of learning about mental (ill) health, and the affective arrangements through which embodied distress is rendered culturally intelligible. In doing so, we situate the use of individual mental health apps within a broader digital ecology that is mediated by therapeutic expertise and offer original contributions to the theorization of public pedagogy.

Sociological Research Online, 2015

In recent years, the increasing regulation of people's health and bodies has been exacerbated... more In recent years, the increasing regulation of people's health and bodies has been exacerbated by a contemporary ‘obesity discourse’ centred on eating less, exercising more and losing weight. This paper contributes to the growing body of work critically examining this discourse and highlights the way physical activity and health policy directed at ‘tackling’ the obesity ‘crisis’ in the UK articulates numerous powerful discourses that operate to legitimise and privilege certain ways of knowing and usher forth certain desirable forms of embodiment. This has given greater impetus to further define the role of physical activity, sport and physical education as instruments for addressing public health agendas. It is argued that these policies have particular implications for social class through their constitution of (un)healthy and (in)active ‘working class’ bodies. One of the most powerful forms of stigmatisation and discrimination circulating within contemporary health emerges when...

SAGE Research Methods Cases, 2015

is a lecturer in physical cultural studies at the University of Bath, United Kingdom. Her work is... more is a lecturer in physical cultural studies at the University of Bath, United Kingdom. Her work is focused around the interdisciplinary interrogation of the practices of the body and subjectivities that are included and excluded in relation to health, body size and appearance, gender, social class, race, (dis)ability across the life span, and the way this is understood in relation to the media and technology. Principal publications include "'I Cheer, You Cheer, We Cheer': Physical Technologies and the Normalized Body"

Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 2014

Our aim in this paper is to throw light on the complexity of the presence of the researcher's bod... more Our aim in this paper is to throw light on the complexity of the presence of the researcher's body in the context of conducting research on and within biopolitical governance. To do so, we present author bodynarratives derived from two separate research studies, both of which explore biopolitics in some way and draw on an embodied methodology. These literary narratives point towards the corporeal contradictions of being located within a culture of reading and critiquing bodies while realising the presence of our own physicality. We argue that methodological reflection on the connections between bodies within the research field and beyond, ought to rest high amongst the list of things shaping the future of work related to biopolitics or we risk the "effacement of the body" (Paechter, 2011, p. 311). We articulate this in two key ways. Firstly, we engage the cultural identities of ourselves and the individuals we encounter, extending this to examine the emplacement of the fleshy bodies of researchers. We offer reflections on the complexities of the emplacement of our researcher bodies in time, space and place (Pink, 2011) and advance a politics of reflexivity that sheds light on how we experience, make claims and speak about embodiment and physical culture within contemporary biopolitical regimes. Secondly, as scholars who seek to disrupt biopolitical forces and attempt to transcend political and disciplinary boundaries, we consider the presence of the body in a process of border crossing (Giroux,1992). We cannot simply consider border crossing as an exchange of ideas, knowledge and practices, rather we explore the ways in which the presence of our sometimes 'normative' bodies can seemingly complicate and contradict our political agenda.

Academic, policy, and public concerns are intensifying around how to respond to increasing mental... more Academic, policy, and public concerns are intensifying around how to respond to increasing mental health problems amongst young people in OECD countries such as the UK and Australia. In this paper we make the case that public knowledge about mental health promotion, help-seeking, support and recovery can be understood as an enactment of public pedagogy—as knowledge practices and processes that are produced within and beyond formal spaces of learning. We explore the question of how new pedagogic modes of address are produced through digital technologies—social media, gamified therapies, e-mental health literacy, wearable technology—as they invite particular ways of knowing embodied distress as " mental illness or ill health. " The rapid growth of formal and informal pedagogical sites for learning about youth mental health raises questions about the affective arrangements that produce new kinds of (ab)normal in the digital era. Through a posthumanist perspective that connects critical mental health studies and public pedagogy, this paper offers an original contribution that theorises pedagogic sites within the cultural formation of public-personal knowledge about mental (ill) health.

Sociology of Sport Journal, 2011

This paper explores issues of sport, sponsorship, and consumption by critically interrogating the... more This paper explores issues of sport, sponsorship, and consumption by critically interrogating the mass-mediated "coming out" narratives of professional golfer, Rosie Jones, and professional basketball player, Sheryl Swoopes. Both athletes came out publicly as gay in light of endorsements received by Olivia Cruises and Resorts-a company that serves lesbian travelers-thus marking a significant shift in the relationship between lesbian subjectivity, sport, and sponsorship. A concern with a neoliberal-infused GLBT politics underscores our analysis, and a close reading of these narratives raises complex questions about the corporatization of coming out and the existence of lesbian celebrity in sport.

Focussing on corporatized and mediated imaginings of nation – as highly political, public and ped... more Focussing on corporatized and mediated imaginings of nation – as highly political, public and pedagogic processes – we aim within this paper to address important questions of cultural identification and discursive address. Our focus is on the ubiquity of the year 1966 in popular narratives of Englishness in the immediacy of major football tournaments: connoting far more than football, we argue that the mythopoesis of 1966 – as a somewhat artificial, powerful myth-making mnemonic – is a historically situated toponym that conjures up the supremacy of England on the international stage. Further, through the performance of an aesthetic of selective silence, we propose that the mythopoeia of 1966 reasserts a utopic abstraction of nation, and acceptance and enactment of, and acquiescence to, mythical English ‘values’.

In recent years, the increasing regulation of people’s health and bodies has been exacerbated by ... more In recent years, the increasing regulation of people’s health and bodies has been exacerbated by a contemporary ‘obesity discourse’ centred on eating less, exercising more and losing weight. This paper contributes to the growing body of work critically examining this discourse and highlights the way physical activity and health policy directed at ‘tackling’ the obesity ‘crisis’ in the UK articulates numerous powerful discourses that operate to legitimise and privilege certain ways of knowing and usher forth certain desirable forms of embodiment. This has given greater impetus to further define the role of physical activity, sport and physical education as instruments for addressing public health agendas. It is argued that these policies have particular implications for social class through their constitution of (un)healthy and (in)active ‘working class’ bodies. One of the most powerful forms of stigmatisation and discrimination circulating within contemporary health emerges when the social and cultural tensions of social class intersect with obesity discourse and its accompanying imperatives related to physical activity and diet. This raises some important questions about the future of sport and physical activity as it is shaped by the politics of broader health agendas and our position within this terrain as ‘critics’. Consequently, the latter part of the paper offers reflections on the nature and utility of our (and others’) social science critique in the politics of obesity and articulates the need for crossing disciplinary and sectoral borders.

Driven by a desire to interrogate and articulate the role and place of the body in the study of s... more Driven by a desire to interrogate and articulate the role and place of the body in the study of sport, this paper encourages those who are incited by a richer under- standing of the physical to expand and elaborate upon the fleshy figuration that guides the research projects and practices/strategies of the present. This call for papers is an opportunity to unpack the methodological impetus of “body work” (Giardina & Newman, 2011a) and to locate it within the nexus of dialogues that expressly seek to reengage an eclectic body politic at precisely the time when the body is a site of continuous scrutinizing and scientific confession. As researchers we grapple with and problematize method(ologies) in light of the conjunctural demands placed upon our scholarship and so I reflect on a recently conducted project and the methodological moments that it brought to light. Conceptual- ized in terms of a physical performative pedagogy of subjectivity, I tentatively forward a discussion of what moving methods might look and feel like and thus I question why, when we research into physical, sporting, (in)active experiences, do we refrain from putting the body to work? Why do we not theorize the body through the moving body?

Our aim in this article is to throw light on the complexity of the presence of the researcher’s b... more Our aim in this article is to throw light on the complexity of the presence of the researcher’s body in the context of conducting research on and within biopolitical governance. To do so, we present author body-narratives derived from two separatestudies, both of which explore biopolitics and draw on an embodied methodology. These narratives point toward the corporeal contradictions of being located within a culture of reading and critiquing bodies while realizing the presence of our own physicality. We argue that methodological reflection on the connections between bodies within the research field ought to rest high among the list of things shaping the future of work related to biopolitics or we risk the effacement of the body. We articulate this in two key ways. First, we examine the emplacement of the fleshy bodies of researchers and the individuals we encounter. We offer reflections on the complexities of the emplacement of our researcher bodies in time, space, and place, and advance a politics of reflexivity that sheds light on how we experience, make claims, and speak about embodiment and physical culture. Second, as scholars who seek to disrupt biopolitical forces and attempt to transcend political and disciplinary boundaries, we consider the presence of the body in a process of border crossing. Rather than simply considering border crossing as an exchange of ideas, knowledge, and practices; we explore the ways in which the presence of our sometimes “normative” bodies can seemingly complicate and contradict our political agenda.

Within this article, we critically reflect on the production and reproduction of knowledge(s) wit... more Within this article, we critically reflect on the production and reproduction of knowledge(s) within the academic study of sport—a field dominated (to its detriment) by self-destructive versions of reductionist science that (subconsciously) act as insidious components of the social and economic condition that privileges “state” science and fail to do justice to the potentialities of “the physical” in overcoming social, political, and health inequalities. To counter such regressive orthodoxies, we focus on a corporeal/technoslow approach to the curriculum/pedagogy in an effort to initiate dialogue about a more progressive and democratic social science of sport, leisure, and physical cultures—a transgressive pedagogy that can encourage transformation and the political potentialities of “the physical.”

Based on research with middle-upper class 12–13-year-old school girls, we discuss how femininitie... more Based on research with middle-upper class 12–13-year-old school girls, we discuss how femininities were embodied and discursively reconstructed in class-based ways. The data suggests the girls understood class antagonisms within the boundaries of neoliberal discourses of responsibilization, self-discipline, self-worth, and ‘proper’ conduct and choices. With social class stripped of any structural or structuring properties, instead imparted to the fleshy sinews of the (excessive) body, the data reveals how social class was made visible and manifest in various mechanisms of, and meanings about, inclusion, exclusion, pathology and normalization. Thus, in explicating the ways in which the school girls embodied middle-upper class femininity (as the epitome of localized and everyday neoliberalism) we highlight how, in turn, ‘others’ (‘chavs’) were pathologized and deemed in need of regulation, management and governance.

This paper explores issues of sport, sponsorship, and consumption by critically interrogating the... more This paper explores issues of sport, sponsorship, and consumption by critically interrogating the mass-mediated “coming out” narratives of professional golfer, Rosie Jones, and professional basketball player, Sheryl Swoopes. Both athletes came out publicly as gay in light of endorsements received by Olivia Cruises and Resorts—a company that serves lesbian travelers—thus marking a significant shift in the relationship between lesbian subjectivity, sport, and sponsorship. A concern with a neoliberal-infused GLBT politics underscores our analysis, and a close reading of these narratives raises complex questions about the corporatization of coming out and the existence of lesbian celebrity in sport.

Within this paper, I conceptualise practices of the body that are learnt and deployed as part of ... more Within this paper, I conceptualise practices of the body that are learnt and deployed as part of feminised body work within the cultural context of girls’ leisure. These are practices of the body that are engaged by young women in ways that allow them to (re)construct their subjectivities as well as ‘negotiate a physical sense of themselves’. Therefore, this paper begins by mapping the theoretical foundations upon which the analysis of femininity is couched. Predi- cated upon debates that distinguish between the girl as a passive, duped recipient of culture’s pedagogical signs and the girl as an active, autonomous ‘freely choosing’, ‘freely consuming’ citizen, I draw out the ways in which young girls’ body practices can shed light on the complex relationship between ‘choice’, agency, consumption and subjectivity. Drawing on data collected from workshops and focus groups, I locate consumption, body management and beautification as constituents and simultaneously constitutors of leisure time. I thus offer insight into the ways in which a group of twenty 13-year-old girls who attended a private (fee paying) school in the West of England account for, maintain, develop, and in places resist, localised appearance cultures. Structured around certain leisure activities – reading magazines, shopping for clothes, eating, engaging in physical activity, applying beauty products, make-up and hair styling – this paper concludes by highlighting the ways in which wider cultural discourses are having embodied effects and are being consumed, not without consequence, as commonplace everyday preoccupations.

Television & New Media, 2015

New Sporting Femininities

Social Sciences

Sociological Research Online, 2015

SAGE Research Methods Cases, 2015

Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 2014

Sociology of Sport Journal, 2011

This paper explores issues of sport, sponsorship, and consumption by critically interrogating the... more This paper explores issues of sport, sponsorship, and consumption by critically interrogating the mass-mediated “coming out” narratives of professional golfer, Rosie Jones, and professional basketball player, Sheryl Swoopes. Both athletes came out publicly as gay in light of endorsements received by Olivia Cruises and Resorts—a company that serves lesbian travelers—thus marking a significant shift in the relationship between lesbian subjectivity, sport, and sponsorship. A concern with a neoliberal-infused GLBT politics underscores our analysis, and a close reading of these narratives raises complex questions about the corporatization of coming out and the existence of lesbian celebrity in sport.

Located within a cultural space situated firmly in the political, technological, and historical c... more Located within a cultural space situated firmly in the political, technological, and historical context of the contemporary moment and predicated on the contention that all texts are dialogic, the author reads physical cultural technologies as constituents of the powerful techniques of self-regulation and self-surveillance of the young female body.“We Cheer” acts as a discursive technology, a noncentralized capillary-like force that works to “conduct the conduct” of subjects. Emanating from these media are digital discourses through which young girls are learning not only how to move their bodies appropriately but also how the have to be to fit the mould and “join the squad.” As a powerful and pervasive public pedagogy,“We Cheer” (re)establishes the position of the neoliberal girl norm, that is, a girl whose body is representative of her being (heterosexy) middle class, white, and a young consumer–citizen.

Call for session proposals - Leisure Studies Association conference, University of Bath, 10-12 Ju... more Call for session proposals - Leisure Studies Association conference, University of Bath, 10-12 July, 2018

The Conference Committee invites proposals for session topics that align with the aims of the conference:
1. To facilitate critical and creative dialogue that responds to the sociopolitical complexity of leisure practices, formations and organisation in contemporary life.
2. To invite diverse disciplinary perspectives, methodological and theoretical approaches from within, and beyond the field, to situate the study of leisure within in a post-disciplinary future.
The LSA conference offers a unique intellectual post-disciplinary space for generating important connections across particular issues and contexts that are being explored in allied fields. By inviting diverse disciplinary perspectives, methodological and theoretical approaches from within, and beyond the field, the conference situates the study of leisure within the post-disciplinary era. Debates about post-disciplinarity in related fields have identified the need for more flexible and creative approaches to researching objects of inquiry that move beyond disciplinary conventions. We ask how are leisure practices and knowledges formed, sustained and contested? What do different leisure practices 'do' in effecting and affecting change, or reproducing power relations that perpetuate inequalities and undermine well-being, communities and the environment? With an increasing emphasis on identifying and measuring research 'impact', the conference invites debate about 'how' research can make a difference in the neoliberal context of higher education. The conference seeks to mobilise critical and creative insights, relationships and collaborations between academics, and also with non-academic participants who have been involved in co-created research (artists, activists, policy makers and professionals). Six streams have been identified around leisure problematics, contexts and interrelated matters of concern:
• Digital and physical cultures
• Embodied health and well-being.
• Critical pedagogies in public and education spaces
• Co-creating research-innovative methodologies
• Inequality, power and change
• Sustainable communities-people and places