Two more half writing days - total now 20,5

With half an article writing day yesterday, and half an article writing day today, this autumn´s total is now up to 20,5 article writing days, with 10 of them in October (a new record). Both (half) days I have been working on my article "Wasted growth - case study: The American nightmare". Some 300 words added today - meaning a table or two, with comments.

Accreditation application approved by UIS board

Today the board of the University of Stavanger has unanimously decided to approve the accreditation application for the ph.d. program in social sciences, which I am leading in my capacity as Vice Dean of Research at Faculty of social sciences. The reorganized programme, with five research schools, will be in effect from tomorrow.

Three meetings yesterday

Yesterday I attended a regular dialogue meeting with one of the faculty´s departments, the annual festivities (årsfest), with doctoral promotion and announcement of three prices, and a meeting related to the Network for welfare research.

Autumn´s 19,5th article writing day - "What can be known about future Umwelten?" finished

Today I have had this autumn´s 19,5th article writing day, finishing my article "What can be known about future Umwelten?", which I have now submitted to The American journal of Semiotics. With 2.360 words written, this is the third most productive writing day so far this autumn by that measure.

Abstract: This article addresses Umwelt futurology, the study of future Umwelten, i.e. semiotic lifeworlds. Umwelt futurology as I describe it is an interdisciplinary enterprise founded on Umwelt theory but also drawing on work done in other academic studies of future developments. Asking what can be known about future Umwelten, I ascertain that our most solid knowledge about any Umwelt situated on Earth whether in the present, in the past or in the future, is derived from an understanding of what constitutes the minimal Umwelt in general and more specifically in Earthly terms. In the design, as it were, of organisms and their lifeworlds, it is not at all the case that anything goes. Knowledge about the basic features of the minimal Umwelt in effect provides us with the foundational building bricks that we need to construct an empirically informed Umwelt futurology. I argue that both predictions and scenarios concerning future lifeworlds can be developed from within this theoretical framework. While Umwelt predictions are meant to be of a merely factual nature, Umwelt scenarios may feature both factual and normative elements. In the case of the latter, factual predictions are – at least implicitly – complemented with assumptions regarding our preferences or desires with regard to future lifeworlds. While Umwelt predictions can give us more informed ideas about the future, Umwelt scenarios can help us make more informed choices whenever we discuss actions, lifestyles or policies that have an impact on future lifeworlds.

 

Keywords: futures studies, Umwelt theory, minimal Umwelt, Umwelt futurology, Umwelt prediction, Umwelt scenario

Autumn´s 18,5th article writing day

Today - and in part yesterday - I have had this autumn´s 18,5th article writing day, with some 1100 words added to my article "What can be known about future Umwelten?"

Faculty leadership meeting

Today I attended the Faculty of social sciences´ leadership meeting (involving dean, director, and vice deans).

Biosemiotics editorial on the legacy of Jesper Hoffmeyer

I have just submitted our editorial for Biosemiotics entitled "Jesper Hoffmeyer´s Biosemiotic Legacy". It has been written by me, Alexei Sharov and Timo Maran.

Two meetings - Network for gender research renamed Centre for gender studies

Today I have attended a meeting of the Faculty of social sciences´ appointments committee (arriving late due to a late bus), and chaired the board meeting of the university´s Network for gender research, which has now been renamed Centre for gender studies (Senter for kjønnsstudier - see Norwegian language news story from the UIS intranet).

Ida Tingvik´s master thesis available online

This Spring I supervised Ida Bertelsen Tingvik´s master thesis in Master in Energy, Environment and Society at UIS, titled "How animals are affected by climate change - A Zoosemiotic investigation of polar bears and ringed seals on Svalbard". Now the master thesis, which refers to some of my work on Umwelt theory, is available online.

Two meetings; including last meeting of current Doctoral committee

Today I attended the Faculty of social sciences leadership group meeting, and chaired the last meeting of today´s Doctoral committee for the Ph.d. in social sciences (marked with cake and flowers). The accreditation application for the ph.d. programme in social sciences was treated and approved by the UIS Educational committee earlier this month, and will be treated by the UIS board October 31st.

Autumn´s 17,5th article writing day

Today I had the autumn´s 17,5th article writing day, with some 5 hours devoted to proof-reading of my chapter "The true value of "doing well" economically"; editing and finish our Biosemiotics editorial on the work of Jesper Hoffmeyer, and writing a little bit on my article "What can be known about future Umwelten"?

Autumn´s 16,5th article writing day; 20.000 words written this autumn

Today I have had this autumn´s 16,5th article writing day, with some 6 and a half hours devoted to my article "What can be known about future Umwelten?" I wrote some 1000 words, which means this is the 7th writing day this autumn I have written in excess of 1000 words, and that the autumn´s total has passed 20.000 words (with October having passed September´s word count as of today).

UIS news story on Network for welfare research posted on two more pages

The University of Stavanger news story about the establishment of Network for welfare research has now been posted on (linked to via) the UIS webpage´s Forskning (research) and Samarbeid (cooperation) pages.

Forum for forskning restarted - first event November 5th

I am involved in organizing a Forum for forskning event at University of Stavanger Tuesday November 5th. This is the first event under that name for two years, and represents a restart of Forum for forskning, in collaboration with 3 other UIS faculties.

This is the Forum for forskning homepage on UIS intranet. Here is presentation of the event November 5th, "Open Access og Dora-erklæringen" (Open Access and the Dora declaration).

Interviewed by NIFU in UIS strategy process

Today I was interviewed, along with a colleague, by NIFU in relation to their evaluation of the University of Stavanger´s current strategy (in preparation of our next strategy, for 2020-2030).

Two meetings

Today I have attended a meeting related to the establishment of a research school in welfare and social work, and a meeting with the Rogaland county authority (Rogaland fylkeskommune) in relation to their work on public health.

Autumn´s 15,5th article writing day

Today I have had what amounts to this autumn´s 15,5th article writing day, with some 5 hours devoted to wok on our editorial on Jesper Hoffmeyer and my article "What can be known about future Umwelten?", and some 1000 words written.

Two meetings

Today I have attended the Faculty of social sciences´ leadership group meeting - also featuring pro rector for education - and an appointments committee meeting for Head of department at Department of media and social science.

Book review of Svendsen published in Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift

My book review of Lars Svendsen´s Å forstå dyr (Understanding animals) has been published in Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift. Reference and link:

Tønnessen, Morten 2019. Lars Fr. H. Svendsen: Å forstå dyr: Filosofi for hunde- og katteelskere. Book review. Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift 54(3): 187–190. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1504-2901-2019-03-06

Network for welfare research established; news story, interview

Today a news story was published on the University of Stavanger intranet entitled "Nettverk for velferdsforskning er opprettet" (Network for welfare research has been established). The news story features an interview with me and is written by Nina Skarpsno Heide.

Preparation meeting, Network for gender research

Today I have attended a meeting in preparation of the board meeting of Network for gender research next week.

Autumn´s 14,5th article writing day

Today I have had half an article writing day, with some 2 and a half hours devoted primarily to my article "What can be known about future Umwelten?", and some 600 words written. Accumulated number of writing days this autumn is up to 14,5.

6000 reads on ResearchGate; RG score

My texts on my profile on ResearchGate have altogether reached 6.000 reads.

My ResearchGate score is 17.46.

Meeting with TTO representative

On Thursday (yesterday) I attended a meeting with Validé focused on Research Portfolio Screening with Technology Transfer in mind.

Autumn´s 14th article writing day

Today I have had the autumn´s 14th article writing day, with some 5 hours devoted to my article "What can be known about future Umwelten", and some 1000 words written.

Lunch lecture at the County Governor of Rogaland

Today I gave a lunch seminar at Fylkesmannen i Rogaland (County Governor of Rogaland, a federal function in the counties), for employees in their Agricultural department and their Environmental department, titled "Rovdyr og natur fra Amazonas til Hjelmeland". Some 30 people attended.

Two meetings

Today I attended a meeting of the Faculty of Social Sciences´ Appointments committee. Early morning...

Then a planning meeting concerning the university´s Network for welfare research, the establishment of which was formally approved last Friday.

Evaluation of Baltic-Norwegian research application

Our Baltic-Norwegian application received a positive evaluation, scoring 13,5 out of 15 possible points, I have been informed. However, to get funded, it would need 14,5 points or more, as only 7 of 130 applications were funded.

Autumn´s 13th article writing day

Today I had half an article writing day, drafting and sketching a Biosemiotics editorial on Jesper Hoffmeyer´s legacy, with some 900 words written. Total number of article writing days is now 13 this autumn.

12,5th article writing day this autumn

Today I have had another article writing day, with some 5 hours devoted to my article "What can be known about future Umwelten?", which is now some 900 words longer than it was yesterday. Total number of article days so far this autumn is 12,5.

Abstract for Sign Systems Studies article accepted by guest-editors

I have been notified that my abstract for the article "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century: Umwelt trajectories revisited" has been accepted by the guest-editors of the Sign Systems Studies special issue "Anticipation and change". A full draft is due by the end of January.

Autumn´s 11,5th article writing day

Today I have had half a writing day, with 2 and a half hour devoted devoted to my article "What can be known about future Umwelten?", and 4-500 words written. This brings the number of article writing days so far this autumn up to 11,5.

Two meetings

Today I have attended two meetings. First a faculty leadership meeting (with dean, director, and the other vice dean), and then a meeting related to the faculty´s research report.

Verdibørsen interview on how we talk about fish

Today I was interviewed live, along with veterinarian Stine Gismervik, on NRK P2´s Verdibørsen (national public radio), in the segment "Fiskevelferd og språk" (Fish welfare and language). Program host was Anne Bøhler. The program can be heard here. The segment lasts some 20 minutes.

Two more half writing days

Today I have had half an article writing day, focused on my article "What can be known about future Umwelten?" and some planning. I also had half a writing day on Monday, September 30th, finishing my Keynes essay. This brings the accumulated number of article writing days this autumn up to 11.

One meeting

Today I have had one meeting (but been busy even so), in relation to next year´s faculty budget.

No Norwegian-Baltic funding

I have been notified that our research application to the Baltic research programme (Estonian call) scheme was not funded.

See also:

baltic-Norwegian research application submitted (February 1st)

Keynes essay "2119" written and submitted to essay competition

Yesterday I wrote an essay entitled "2119" for an essay competition called by Norwegian daily Klassekampen and the Stavanger-based economics festival Kåkånomics. The framing of the competition is what the economy will look like in a hundred years (as Keynes discussed some 90 years ago).