Today I have had this year´s last writing day, with some 1.400 words written on my chapter "Nosology and semiotics". Total number of writing days for the Autumn is 31,5. Adding the 49,5 writing days I had this Spring, this means the total number of writing days for 2021 is 81 (compared with 94 in 2020).
Altogether I wrote 15.359 words this Autumn. This is the least since Spring 2019. For 2021 as a whole, I wrote 41.178 words (compared with 84.739 words in 2020 and 42.112 words in 2019).
According to my Google Scholar profile, my research has to date attracted 615 citations (+5 since November 28th). Of these 110 are from 2021 (+1 since November 28th), a new annual record. The last record was made in 2016 (implying that citations of my work has since stagnated).
My h-index remains 14 and my i10-index 24.
100 items are listed on my profile.
These are the latest publications to reach 10 citations:
Today I have gotten to the bottom of my inbox for the first time since August. One and a half week ago I had about 400 emails marked as unread (though for the most part actually in process of being read or treated).
After several unexplained delays, Springer has now informed that the new release date for our book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism is January 21st 2022 (it was first scheduled to appear at some point in November 2021).
Today, on the year´s last official workday, I have had 2 scheduled appointments, including an interview with the magazine Genialt by journalist Truls Petersen of the Norwegian Biotechnology Advisory Board. The topic was nature views.
I have now submitted my manuscript "Wasted growth – case study: The American dream or nightmare?" to Journal of Economic growth.
Today I have taken part in execution of a job interview at the department.
This is my last day in the office before New year, I will work from home office the next few days.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my book chapter "Nosology and semiotics", with some 500 words written, and the abstract composed. Number of writing days this Autumn is up to 30,5.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to resubmitting/transferring my first wasted growth article, and working further on my book chapter "Nosology and Semiotics", with some 300 words written. Number of writing days so far this Autumn is up to 29,5.
My article "Wasted growth – case study: The American dream or nightmare?" has been rejected by Applied Research in Quality of Life following peer-review.
Today I have attended 2 scheduled meetings digitally. Now I´m on to a covid-adjusted Christmas lunch at Victoria hotel, with colleagues.
Today I have attended 3 scheduled meetings, and taken part in distributing Christmas presents for all employees at Department of social studies.
Today I have attended 5 meetings. This included a steering group meeting for establishment of a candidate of psychology study, and a coordination meeting on public health.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my chapter "Nosology and semiotics", with some 600 words written. Among other things I drafted a detailed disposition/table of contents for the chapter. Number of writing days this Autumn is up to 28,5.
Volume 14, issue 2 of Biosemiotics has appeared, featuring our Biosemiotic Achievement Award announcement text.
Full reference:
Rodríguez, Claudio Julio Higuera & Morten Tønnessen 2021. Biosemiotics Achievement Award for the Year 2020. Biosemiotics 14(2): 233–236. Published online August 21st 2021. DOI: 10.1007/s12304-021-09445-9
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my second wasted growth article, which I today renamed "Wasted growth and inequality in human development: USA vs. the Nordic countries", with some 400 words added to the text and a table researched and composed. I also tentatively defined inequality-adjusted wasted and wasteful growth. Total number of writing days this Autumn is up to 27,5.
Today as well I have attended 5 scheduled meetings. 15 so far this week (too much...).
Today I have attended 5 meetings (like yesterday ... 10 meetings in 2 days is quite a lot). This included a budget meeting and two meetings related to Cognitive lab.
Today I have had 5 scheduled meetings from my home office. This included my weekly meeting with the office manager, and a meeting in relation to development of a master in psychology.
My chronicle "Om 10.000 år, hvem tar regningen for vår karbonfangst og -lagring?" was published in the daily newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad November 16th. A reply, "Alt tilsier at lagring er trygt over et tidsrom på 10.000 år" by professors Helge Hellevang and Snorre Olaussen, was published November 25, to which I replied with "Om 100 år er alt glemt?", published December 2nd.
Today I have attended the first half of the extraordinary meeting of the national Fagorgan for filosofi og idéhistorie. I have also attended Marina Sletten´s trial lecture and ph.d. defense, and a celebratory event at the department. Later tonight I will attend her doctoral dinner.
Today I have had an article writing day with some 500 words written on my second wasted growth article and a table finished and commented on. Number of writing days so far this Autumn is up to 25,5.
Today I have attended 3 scheduled meetings. This included the weekly faculty leadership group meeting, and the Autumn´s third and last staff meeting, where among other things we discussed revision of the department´s action plan.
Today I have attended 4 scheduled meetings. This included my weekly meeting with the office manager.
Today I have had an article writing day, with 5 hours devoted to some work on Captured, the book chapter "Nosology and semiotics", and my second wasted growth article, and some 400 words written. So far this autumn I have had 24,5 writing days. November ended with only 5 writing days (the least this Autumn), but 3.385 words written (the most this Autumn).
According to Google scholar my work has by now attracted 610 citations (+8 since November 19th). This includes 109 citations in 2021 to date (+8 since November 19th). My i10-index is now 24 (+2, a new record) and my h-index 14 (-1 since November 19th). This means that 24 of my publications have been cited 10 times or more, and that 14 of my publications have been cited at least 14 times each.
My most cited article to date is "Umwelt transitions: Uexküll and environmental change" (2009, 49 citations). My most cited article in 2021 is "The ethics of laying hen genetics" (2019, I am last author; 13 citations).
100 items are listed on my Google profile.
Today I have chaired Rune Slagstad´s lecture "Populistisk elitisme: Universitet overalt", with discussion, which was attended by 50-60 people in person, and had lunch with Slagstad and a few others. I have also attended a scheduled meeting.
Today I have had half a writing day devoted to some work on my book chapter "Nosology and semiotics", with some 100 words written. I have also made some inquiries on two finished book chapter manuscripts and a reprint and gotten updates on expected publication time for these three books, which all now seem to be scheduled for publication in 2022.
Total number of writing days so far this Autumn is up to 23,5.
Over the two last days I have attended the digital two-day meeting of UHR-Helse og sosial, the health and social studies unit within Universities Norway.
Today I have attended four scheduled meetings. This included the second department council meeting this Autumn, and the weekly faculty leadership group meeting.
Today I have attended the weekly meeting with the office manager plus a 4 hour leadership forum at University of Stavanger.
Today I have had half an article writing day devoted to my book chapter "Nosology and semiotics", with some literature search done, some formatting done, and the rudimentary start of a table of contents.
Total number of writing days so far is up to 23.
My book chapter "Semiotics in ethology and zoology" is listed among all the other chapters on Bloomsbury´s webpage for the 4 volume book set "Bloomsbury semiotics", which is to be published in the summer of 2022. My chapter will appear as chapter 4 in volume II, "Semiotics in the Natural and Technical Sciences" (edited by Jamin Pelkey and Stéphanie Walsh Matthews).
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to contributing to a jointly written article on historical studies of animals, with some 1.100 words written. Number of writing days so far this Autumn is up to 22,5, with more than 10.000 words written altogether.
By Google Scholar metrics, I have for the first time achieved 100 citations in a year. Specifically, my work has to date in 2021 been cited 101 times (+14 since September 10th), and 602 times altogether (+18 since September 10th). My i10-index remains 22 and my h-index 15. The 2021 count to date is 15 citations above my previous record, in 2016, and 27 above the 2020 count.
Springer Nature´s page presenting our book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism, which is being published now in November, has been updated a little while ago.
Number of Pages: XXVII, 374
It currently does not show the book cover or link to sales. The book is also listed in the overview of titles in the book series Biosemiotics.
Today I have attended the weekly faculty leadership group meeting, and chaired the Autumn´s fourth and last Fagforum at the department, featuring Christian Børge Sørensen.
Today I attended one meeting, related to our work aiming at establishing professional studies in psychology.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to finishing my Routledge book proposal for the book Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement, with some 1.600 words written in the process (chapter synopses, tentatively used as chapter summaries).
Number of writing days so far this Autumn is up to 21,5.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to planning writing days for Spring 2022 and working further on a book proposal to Routledge for my book project Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement, with some 100 words written on the book manuscript in the process.
Number of writing days so far this Autumn is up to 20,5.
The last few days I have been traveling in Finnmark in Northern Norway, partaking in the excursion of Norway´s Council for animal ethics. We arrived in Alta on Monday (November 8th), and then drove to Kautokeino. In the afternoon we met with researchers and a Head of department at Sámi allaskuvla (Sámi university of applied sciences). On Tuesday (November 9th) we went to the Finnmark expanse (Finnmarksvidda) on a trip by snow scooter arranged by Sokki adventure, and got to encounter reindeer, throw lasso, ride with reindeer by sledge, and have lunch in a big lavvo with live fire. On Wednesday (November 10th) we visited Laksens hus in Alta, had a meeting with the Norwegian Directorate of Agriculture´s reindeer department, and in the evening had a 3-hour Council of animal ethics meeting. In the latter we treated two council statements, including one on zoological gardens which I have drafted in collaboration with Guri Larsen. This was a treatment of a revised version, the statement will soon be finalized and issued.
On Thursday this week, November 4th, an interview with me on walking and Henry David Thoreau was aired again on Norwegian national radio (Studio 2, NRK P2), under the heading "Trær forteller" (Trees tell). Link to program here. Journalist: Jostein Gjertsen.
Today, at the 12th conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS XII), I chaired Irene Mittelberg´s keynote speech, "Sensing Meaning: Felt Qualities of Perceptual Experience in Coverbial Gestures". This is the third and last day of the conference. Some 50 people have been registered for the conference, of which ca. 30 attending physically, the rest online. With some further virtual viewership including a number of students in Lithuania and Italy, up to 100 people have followed the conference.
Yesterday, at the 12th conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS XII), I presented my paper "Neurosemiotics across species" (see conference abstract) in the session "Biosemiotics", which I also chaired (there were two more papers, by Kalevi Kull and Amelia Lewis). Some 40 people attended altogether, with a bit more of half of these physically present and the rest attending online.
Later in the evening the conference dinner took place, at the restaurant Grey.
Yesterday I took part in the opening of the 12th conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS) at Vilnius University in Vilnius, Lithuania (held November 5-7th, 2021, with the theme "Meaning in perception and the senses"). In the evening, I chaired the General assembly of NASS. I was reelected as President of NASS for a third term (I have served as President since 2017), and as ordinary representative for Norway.
Today I have chaired a job interview for the position as research assistant in relation to my work on welfare and economics, attended half a leadership training course on HMS themes, and started on my trip to Vilnius, Lithuania, where I will attend and present at the 12th conference of the Nordic Association for semiotic studies (November 5-7th).
Today I have taken part in two scheduled meetings and led two job interviews (for the position as scientific assistant).
Today I have attended four scheduled meetings, including the weekly faculty leadership group meeting and this Autumn´s third Fagforum at our department.
Today I have attended three scheduled meetings, including a meeting on student exchange with Cuba.
Today I have had half an article day devoted to my book projects Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement and Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism. The latter is nearing publication. Total number of article writing days so far this autumn is up to 19,5.
In October I logged the writing of 2.427 words. Total for the Autumn so far (August-October) is 7.698 words.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to proof-reading chunks of our forthcoming book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism, with some 100 words added to the manuscript in the process. Number of writing days this autumn is up to 19.
Today I have attended three scheduled meetings. This included a steering group meeting for Network for welfare research, at Ydalir hotel.
Today I have attended 4 scheduled meetings, including the autumn´s third department leadership group meeting and a meeting related to establishment of a master in psychology.
Today I have attended 3 meetings, including a meeting related to the University of Stavanger´s involvement in a public health partnership, and a meeting with NOKUT related to the new master degree(s) in child protection.
Today I have had an article writing day mostly devoted to designing the article structure of my second wasted growth article, focused on inequality, with a disposition outlined and plans made for six tables (four of which new ones), and some 300 words written. I have also had a brief look at the proof pages for our book Semiotic agency, and done a little work on my book Captured.
Number of writing days so far this Autumn is up to 18.
The call for papers for the 22nd International Gathering in Biosemiotics, to be held at Palacký University in Olomouc, the Czech Republic June 27th - July 1st 2022, has been made. Abstracts are due February 28th 2022.
Today I have had half an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, with some 200 words added to the third article, and table of contents developed and abstract drafted. Number of writing days this Autumn is up to 17.
Today I have attended the trial lecture and ph.d. defense of Håvard Haugstvedt at University of Stavanger. Afterwards we celebrated the degree at the department. Tonight I will go along to a disputas dinner.
Today I have attended one or two scheduled meetings, including one which was done by phone, and a meeting related to Journal of Comparative Social Work, which UIS publishes in collaboration with University of Agder and NORD university.
Today I have attended three meetings, including the weekly faculty leadership group meeting and this Autumn´s second Fagforum at the department - which featured a presentation on making statements in the media by Svein Erik Tuastad.
Today I have attended the steering group meeting of Cognitive lab and my weekly meeting with the office manager, plus a photo shoot session in relation to our application for establishing a candidate of psychology study (the result of which can be seen here).
Today I have had an article writing day, doing some planning for the next few months and re-starting my work on my second and third wasted growth article (elements/fragments are in place but full development remains). I decided to aim for Social Indicators Research for the second and affirmed that I aim for Journal of development economics for the third. Length and format requirements for both articles are now clear to me.
So far this autumn I have had 16,5 article writing days.
I am mentioned in a recent news story from the Norwegian alt right online newssite Resett, in the news story "Klimarealistene lanserte nytt vitenskapelig tidsskrift – ble refset av rektor Klaus Mohn" by Jon Gulbrandsen. In the text it says I was one of the speakers at Klimarealistene´s meeting at University of Stavanger Tuesday this week. For the record, what I did was make a comment and ask a question from the audience (the only such question at the event). Also, there are multiple errors with regard to how Resett presents my affiliation.
I have been scheduled to present my paper "Neurosemiotics Across Species" on Saturday November 6th at 18.00-18.30 as part of the parallell session (number 8.1) "Umwelt", at the conference NASS XII, the 12th conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS), to be held at the Algirdas Julius Greimas Centre for Semiotics and Literary Theory, Faculty of Philology, Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania (November 5-7).
See also conference homepage and conference program.
Today I have had half an article writing day, with some 300 words written on a collectively written article on animal historicity tentatively titled "Dismantling the Immutable Animal: An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Historicity in Past Animal Behaviour and Culture" (Hussain, Zehnle et al.), and several comments made in the margins.
Number of writing days so far this Autumn is up to 15,5.
Yesterday I attended two scheduled meetings, including a ph.d. supervision session. I also attended a meeting at University of Stavanger by "Klimarealistene" (literally: the climate realists), a group of scholars and others who believe there is no (or hardly any) anthropogenic climate change, focused on the launch of an allegedly scientific journal. In the evening, I attended a dinner with colleagues. - A long day.
Last week I attended the conference (or research symposium) ""…just as alluring as instructive…” – Henrik Steffens’ Concept of Nature in Science, Humanities and Arts around 1800», which was held at University of Copenhagen, South Campus, October 7th to 9th. My presentation "Steffens’ ideas about organic meteorology. From the Totalorganismus to planetary health?" was delivered on Saturday October 9th, with some 18 people present. I took part as an invited speaker.
Today I have attended 2 scheduled meetings, including my weekly meeting with the office manager.
Today I have attended two scheduled meetings. This included the Autumn´s second staff meeting, with focus on student exchange, the students´ suitability for professional work, and a research application process.
I have also contributed in a last round to our application for establishment of a candidate of psychology study, which is being finalized these days, with some final editing of the diplomas related to learning outcomes and course names.
Today I have attended 4 scheduled meetings. This included a meeting with the student association at the department, Sosialstudentene.
Today I have had an article writing day, the 15th this Autumn, devoted to preparing my upcoming Henrik Steffens conference presentation and forthcoming book chapter, with some 50 words written in the process.
Today I have had an article writing day with preparations done for my upcoming Steffens conference talk and the anthology chapter to follow, with some 600 words written.
Today I have attended the meeting of Norway´s national "fagråd" (academic council) for philosophy and history of ideas, digitally.
Today I have attended 3 scheduled meetings. This included a work meeting with risk analysis in the context of HSE (Health - Safety - Environment).
A report from the research workshop "Animal (Pre)History, Agency & Legacy" (held digitally May 10-12th), where I presented the paper "Individuality and subjectivity in animals in light of Umwelt temporality", is published in ZIF-Mitteilungen, published by the Universität Bielefeld´s Zentrum for interdisciplinary Forschung (Center for Interdisciplinary Research), no. 2/2021, p. 39-40. About my presentation it says:
Die Biosemiotik regte indes dazu an, tierische Interaktionsformen als spezifische Umweltwahrnemnung und Kommunikation zu erfassen und deren Diversität und Alterität ernst zu nehmen (Morten Tønnessen).
Today I have had two scheduled meetings and two drop-in meetings. This included a steering group meeting in relation to the application for a candidate of psychology study.
Today I have attended four scheduled meetings. This included the Autumn´s second department leadership group meeting. After discussion on the meeting, I decided that the department will go back to physical teaching only starting next week, as national corona virus measures were mostly discontinued this weekend.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted mainly to revising my article with Joakim Jiri Haaland, and partly also to my upcoming Henrik Steffens conference presentation which will end up as an ethology chapter as well. I wrote some 300 words; and this is the 13th writing day so far this Autumn.
I have been scheduled to present my paper "Steffens’ ideas about organic meteorology. From the Totalorganismus to planetary health?" (read the abstract here) at the conference “…just as alluring as instructive…” Henrik Steffens’ Concept of Nature in Science, Humanities and Arts around 1800 (University of Copenhagen October 7-9th, 2021) on Saturday October 9th at 10.30-11.00.
Conference info with full program here.
On Sunday September 19th I had an article writing day - the 12th so far this Autumn, with some 600 words written on my first wasted growth article, which is in the final version titled "Wasted growth - case study: The American dream or nightmare?" The article has been submitted to Applied Research in Quality of Life.
Today I have attended three scheduled meetings. This included contributions to local salary negotiations.
Today I have attended three scheduled meetings. This included a meeting on serious incidents abroad.
Today I have attended two scheduled meetings including a work lunch, plus a leadership training course.
Yesterday I attended two meetings, namely the faculty leadership group meeting and this Autumn´s first department council meeting, which was the first with the newly appointed council.
I have been informed by the conference organizers that my paper submission for the Second World Inequality Conference, to be held in Paris in December, was not accepted.
Today I have attended two scheduled meetings, had a ph.d. co-supervision session, and chaired an online seminar for people involved in the development of our master degree in psychology.
Today I have had half an article writing day, with an author bio note written for the Bloomsbury Semiotics companion I am contributing to with the chapter "Semiotics in ethology and zoology", and some registration and PR done for our forthcoming book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism, among other things. Total number of writing days so far this Autumn is up to 11.
Our book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism has now been announced online.
Reference:
Sharov, Alexei & Morten Tønnessen (in print, 2021). Semiotic Agency: Science beyond Mechanism (Biosemiotics 25). Springer Nature. DOI 10.1007/978-3-030-89484-9, ISBN 978-3-030-89483-2 (Hardcover), 978-3-030-89484-9 (ebook).
This book invites readers to embark on a journey into the world of agency encompassing humans, other organisms, cells, intracellular molecular agents, colonies, populations, ecological systems, and artificial autonomous systems. We combine mechanistic and non-mechanistic approaches in the analysis of the function and evolution of organisms, their subagents, and multi-organism systems, and in this way offer a theoretical platform for integrating biosemiotics with both natural science and the humanities/social sciences. Agents are autonomous systems that incorporate knowledge on how to make sense of their environment and use it to achieve their goals. The functions of all agents are supported by mechanisms at the lowest level; however, the explanatory power of mechanistic analysis is not sufficient for complex agents. Non-mechanistic methods rely on the goal-directedness of agents whose dynamics follow self-stabilized dynamic attractors. The properties of attractors depend on stable or slowly changing factors, and such dependencies can be interpreted as sign relations if they are adaptive in nature. Agents can replace or redirect mechanisms on demand in order to preserve their functions; for performing higher-level semiotic functions, mechanisms are thus only means. We assume that mechanism and semiosis are not mutually exclusive, and that simple agents can interpret signs mechanistically. This assumption allows us to extend semiotic analysis to all agents, including ribosomes in cells, computers, and robots. This book challenges established traditions in natural science and the humanities/social sciences: semiotics no longer appears as restricted to humans and rational thinking, and biology is no longer limited to rely exclusively on mechanistic reasoning.
A chronicle of mine was cited in a commentary published in Dagsavisen, written by Chief Editor Eirik Hoff Lysholm, "Stortingsvalget 2021 i verdens beste land å leve i: Vi, de priviligerte":
Jeg låner forklaringen til Morten Tønnessen, professor i filosofi og instituttleder ved Institutt for sosialfag ved Universitetet i Stavanger, fra en kronikk i Stavanger Aftenblad: «HDI-indeksen til FN, som ble lansert i 1990, er basert på tre elementer, nemlig forventet levealder, antall skoleår, og gjennomsnittlig inntekt. (…) Noen få land har lengre levealder, flere skoleår, eller høyere gjennomsnittsinntekt enn Norge, men ingen slår oss på kombinasjonen av disse indikatorene. Ikke bare topper Norge listen – vi har også en høyere HDI-verdi enn noen gang tidligere – nærmere bestemt 0,957, på en skala som går fra 0 til 1. Dermed setter vi også en ny verdensrekord. Ingen land har noensinne hatt en høyere HDI-verdi».
Today I have attended three meetings. This included a meeting with BUFETAT (Norway´s Agency for Children, Youth and Families), a meeting related to Cognitive lab, and a steering group meeting for establishment of a candidate of psychology study.
A 40% position as research assistant within welfare and economics is open at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies, for a period of 2 years. The one who is employed will be collaborating with me.
The call (in Norwegian only) is available here.
Today I attended (most of) a meeting with the child protection service in the municipality of Stavanger.
Yesterday I attended the meeting of Norway´s Council for animal ethics, at Norwegian Veterinary Institute´s new localities on Ås.
It has been quite a day. I flew for the first time in a year. The flight (Stavanger > Oslo) was three-four hours late. I had a meeting with an editor at Universitetsforlaget (Scandinavian University Press) to discuss my book project Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement, and then met with a scholar with which I have common research interests. Also, it is election day in Norway.
Today I have had half an article writing day devoted to my first wasted growth article, with some 400 words written and some consistent structure work done. Total number of writing days this Autumn is up to 10,5.
According to Google Scholar (cf. my profile), my research has as of now attracted 87 citations in 2021, making 2021 a year with a record number of citations (in 2016, I had 86 citations).
This is good, though a "breakthrough" trajectory should involve a record number of citations every year, not just now and then. Altogether my research has to date attracted 584 citations.
Today I have had an article writing day, the 10th this Autumn, with some work done involving my recently published article on CCS and climate justice, the book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism, and the book procject Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement, and some 100 words written.
My Norwegian language journal article on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) was published this week.
Reference:
Tønnessen, Morten (2021). Karbonfangst i lys av generasjonsrettferdighet. Norsk filosofisk tidsskrift 56(2–3): 91–101. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18261/issn.1504-2901-2021-02-03-04
The article is Open Access and thus freely available for full-text reading and download.
English language summary:
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) stands out from other climate mitigation measures by involving storage of CO2 in geological formations for several thousand years. Few if any other mitigation measures raise similar questions related to the long-term impact of the measure. This accentuates the issue of intergenerational justice in relation to CCS. Reliance on CCS represents a moral hazard, since it risks delaying and undermining the needed transition to a fossil-free energy system and society. It would also be fundamentally unjust in that it would burden future generations with much of the practical responsibility for dealing with environmental problems caused by current generations. Emphasis on intergenerational justice should lead us to commit to rapid climate gas emission reductions today rather than relying on negative emissions at some point in the future. Such an assessment is in line with central contemporary climate research as well as key norms in environmental ethics. It is also in line with some of the fundamental insights of deep ecology as developed by Arne Næss.
Keywords: Carbon capture and storage (CCS), bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), intergenerational justice, climate ethics, moral hazard, deep ecology
Yesterday I attended my first safety inspection - called "vernerunde" in Norwegian, with two colleagues who serve as "verneombud" and "varaverneombud" respectively. This entails stopping by at each office at the department to inquire about HSE matters (Health - Safety - Environment; in Norwegian called HMS, for Helse - Miljø - Sikkerhet).
Today I have attended three scheduled meetings. This included a course on the economic responsibilities of leaders at the university.
Today I have attended three scheduled meetings. This included the Autumn´s first staff meeting (and the year´s fourth), which was held physically on campus, with some 45 people present.
Today I have had three scheduled meetings, including my weekly meeting with the office manager.
Today I have had an article writing day, the 9th this Autumn, devoted to my first wasted growth article, which is now re-named "Wasted growth - case study: The American dream or nightmare?", with some 800 words written. This makes today the most productive writing day so far this Autumn.
Today I have had an article writing day, with two key texts read and some 100 words added to my wasted growth articles, plus my 2019 paper "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries" re-read and submitted to the Second World Inequality Conference.
Number of writing days so far this Autumn is up to 8.
I have submitted my published paper "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries" for consideration for an oral presentation at the Second World Inequality Conference, to be held at the Paris School of Economics December 7-8th.
Today I have attended 4 meetings, which filled my work day from 8.45 to 15. This included a budget meeting, a work group meeting on our development of a master in psychology, and the third steering group meeting related to our development of a candidate of psychology study (profesjonsstudium).
Today I have attended three scheduled meetings, and then some. This included a faculty leadership meeting, and the Autumn´s first department leadership group meeting.
Today I have given a welcome speech to the new students in our master in social studies (MSO), attended two scheduled meetings and watched the MFAMILY graduation ceremony, with some cake and coffee afterwards.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, with some 400 words written - and a big discovery made related to HDI. Number of writing days so far this Autumn - all in August - is up to 7, with some 2.700 words written this month.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my first wasted growth article, with some 100 words written and several texts read with citations prepared. The number of writing days this Autumn is up to 6.
Today I have presented my paper "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries" at the ISQOLS (International Society for Quality-Of-Life Studies) 2021 conference, "Quality-of-life and adaptation in a virulent world", as part of the session "Well-Being in the World II", which was chaired by Emma Pleeging. Some 10 people attended live; the conference presentation is also available for the 300+ conference participants in recording.
Today I have attended a steering group meeting related to the ongoing application with for establishing a candidate of psychology study, the second such meeting.
Yesterday and today I have attended the Faculty of social sciences´ leadership gathering at Grand hotel in Flekkefjord. Back home now.
Today I have had an article writing day, primarily devoted to my "Nosology and semiotics" chapter and related work, and my article with Joakim Jiri Haaland on friluftsliv in the context of child protection services. Number of writing days this Autumn is up to 5.
Our award announcement text has just been published online (the article is available Open Access, including for PDF download):
Reference:
Rodríguez Higuera, Claudio Julio & Morten Tønnessen 2021. Biosemiotics Achievement Award for the Year 2020. Biosemiotics. Published online August 21st 2021. DOI: 10.1007/s12304-021-09445-9
According to Google Scholar (cf. my profile) my research has attracted 581 citations (+8 since August 8th), including 82 in 2021 (+8 since August 8th). So far 2021 is my second best year in terms of number of citations (the only better year was 2016, with 86 citations).
My i10-index remains 22 and my h-index is now 15 (+2 since August 8th), meaning that 15 of my publications have been cited at least 15 times each. The most recent of these is "The ethics of laying hen genetics", which appeared online in 2019 and in print in 2020, and has attracted 16 citations to date. It has 8.300 accesses (views/downloads).
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to proof-reading our Biosemiotic Achievement Award announcement text, and doing some work on the first of my wasted growth articles, with some 100 words written. Number of writing days so far this Autumn is up to 4.
Today I have attended one scheduled meeting (and quite a few unscheduled drop-in meetings).
Today I have taken part in two meetings and a work lunch, with the latter involving my first physical meeting with Jacob Tom, a ph.d. student I will be co-supervising for the next 3 years (with Tyson Retz as main supervisor). I also acted as an external examiner at an oral master thesis exam, via Zoom, for University of Oslo.
Today I have given a welcome speech to new students six times, divided between the three bachelor degrees of Department of social studies (in psychology, social work, and child welfare). All in actual, physical rooms. I have also prepared grading of a master thesis for University of Oslo.
Today I have attended 3 scheduled meetings, and watched most of the official semester opening ceremony at University of Stavanger - which students could attend physically, while employees had to follow it digitally.
Today I have had an article writing day, with some 400 words added to my first wasted growth article. Number of writing days this Autumn is up to 3.
Today I have had half an article writing day devoted to my third wasted growth article. Number of writing days so far this Autumn is up to 2.
Today I have had 6 scheduled meetings, five of them one-on-one and the last one with the psychologists of the department.
Today I have attended the first steering group meeting for professional study in psychology (profesjonsstudium) at UIS. I have also chaired a job interview.
Our article "Biosemiotic Achievement Award for the Year 2020" has been accepted for publication in Biosemiotics.
See also:
Today I have taken part in 3 meetings and given a ph.d. supervision session.
Autumn is upon us.
According to Google Scholar (cf. my profile), my research has by now attracted 573 citations (+13 since July 17th). This includes 74 citations in 2021 (+10 since July 17th). My i10-index is 22 (+1 since July 17th) while my h-index remains 13. 2021 is currently my 3rd best year nominally. My profile lists 100 texts, 54 of which have been cited.
Today I have had an article writing day, with some 100 words added to the announcement text for the Biosemiotic Achievement Award for 2020, which I am co-writing with Claudio J. Rodríguez Higueira, and 300 words added to my article "Wasted growth - case study: The American nightmare".
Total number of writing days this Autumn is up to 1,5.
All recordings from the 21st gathering in biosemiotics are now available on YouTube, sorted by day.
The live stream from day 3 includes my presentation "The relevance of Umwelt theory for the theory and practice of phenomenology" (see abstract), which can be watched at 33m-1h04m.
Today I had the autumn´s first half article writing day, with some 800 words written on the announcement text for the Biosemiotic Achievement award for 2020.
My article "Current human ecology in the Amazon and beyond: A multi-scale ecosemiotic approach" was Biosemiotics´ 5th most accessed in 2020, and the 2nd most accessed article published in 2018-2020, with 1.298 article requests (total to date: 1.581).
"Jesper Hoffmeyer´s biosemiotic legacy", an editorial I co-wrote with Alexei Sharov and Timo Maran, ranks as no. 7 overall and as no. 4 among articles published in 2018-2020, with 1,141 article requests (total to date: 1.749). Finally, the editorial "Phenomenology and biosemiotics", also co-written with Sharov and Maran, ranks as no. 7 among articles published in 2018-2020, with 764 article requests (total to date: 2.762).
Today I have attended the annual editorial board of Biosemiotics, which took place via Zoom. The editorial board meeting was attended by some 20 people, under the leadership of the new Editor-in-Chief, Yogi Hendlin and co-Editor in Chief Alexei Sharov.
In 2020, my last year as lead Editor-in-Chief, the Impact Factor went down from 2019, but the number of downloads increased to record numbers (ca. 59.000, vs. 44.000 in 2019). In 2021, both the number of articles published and the number of article downloads have increased to new record-levels, while processing times have decreased significantly (probably partly due to the new editorial setup with several Associate editors).
Today I have had another writing day, the last this Spring, as I account for it (January to July). I proof-read my Norwegian language CCS article "Karbonfangst i lys av generasjonsrettferdighet", amongst other things (the article is to be published in September).
Total number of writing days this Spring is up to 49,5 (vs. 52 originally planned). In comparison, I had 54 writing days in Spring 2020. I have written a total of 25.819 words (compared with 45.161 words in Spring 2020).
For the autumn of 2021 (August to December), I am planning 37 writing days.
See also:
Yesterday I announced the winners of the Biosemiotic achievement award for 2020 during the closing section of the 21st gathering in biosemiotics. Watch it here (live stream - day 4 - at 6.13.50-6.19). I was a member of the selection panel for this year´s award along with Claudio Rodriguez Higueira, with me representing the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies (ISBS) and Claudio representing the journal Biosemiotics.
The live stream from day 3 (same link as above) includes my presentation "The relevance of Umwelt theory for the theory and practice of phenomenology" (see abstract), which can be watched at 1.16-1.46.
Here is a link to the abstract book for the 21st gathering in biosemiotics. My abstract "The relevance of Umwelt theory for the theory and practice of phenomenology" is on p. 45.
Today I presented my paper "The relevance of Umwelt theory for the theory and practice of phenomenology" digitally live at the 21st Gathering in biosemiotics. The live presentation was watched by some 45 people on Zoom, and was also live-streamed on YouTube (and is also available for later watching).
My 2008 article "The statistician´s guide to Utopia: The future of growth" is available in full-text (PDF) here.
Today I have attended a meeting. The only one this week.
I am also following the 21st gathering in biosemiotics (Monday to Thursday - live stream here).
The 2020 Impact factor for Biosemiotics, for which I was lead Editor-in-Chief 2018-2020, was 0.711. This is lower than in the previous years. The 5-year Impact factor is 1.224.
Biosemiotics had 59.184 downloads in 2020. This is increasing.
My paper "Human development, inequality and social risks in Latin-America and the Nordic countries" has been scheduled for live online presentation at the 2021 conference of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS), to be held August 25-27th (cf. conference program), on Thursday August 26th at 4 - 5.40 pm CEST, as part of the session “Well-Being in the World III”. My presentation, which will be held 4 - 4.25, will also be recorded and accessible for later viewing by conference participants.
According to Google Scholar my research has by now attracted 560 citations (+5 since June 20th) - see my profile. This includes 64 citations in 2021 (+8 since June 20th). 2021 now ranks as my fourth best year. My i10-index remains 21, while my h-index is 13 (-1 since June 20th).
My paper «The relevance of umwelt theory for the theory and practice of phenomenology» has been scheduled for presentation at the 21st gathering in biosemiotics on Wednesday 28th of July at 2-2.30 CET. The event will be streamed live online.
I have done peer-reviews of individual abstracts as a member of the scientific committee for NASS XII - most recently one today.
Tartu Semiotics Summer School 2021, with the theme "Semiotic horizons: time, memory, and future(s)", was planned for August 13-16th, but I have now been informed by the organizers that the event is cancelled, for covid-related reasons. I was one of the invited speakers.
Today I was notified that none of my 2 proposed ph.d. projects were awarded a ph.d. position from the Faculty of social sciences at University of Stavanger. There were altogether 19 applications for the 4 ph.d. positions available.
See also:
Ph.d. project proposal on Norway´s HDI performance developed
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to "Wasted growth - case study: The American nightmare", with some 200 words written, and the text restructured, with numbered paragraphs. I also finished the Supplementary information to go along with the article as an online resource. Total number of writing days is up to 48,5.
I will now have 3 weeks of vacation.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to the first of my wasted growth articles, with some 200 words written, a figure made, and some work done on formatting the manuscript correctly.
Total number of writing days this Spring is up to 47,5.
I have been informed by the organizers of the 21st Gathering in Biosemiotics, which is to be held digitally and in Stockholm July 26-29th and streamed online, that my paper "The relevance of Umwelt theory for the theory and practice of phenomenology" has been accepted for oral presentation. I plan to attend the conference digitally.
Today I have had an article writing day, with some 900 words added to the first of my wasted growth articles, and the final table of the article, a comparison of wasteful growth in the Nordic countries and the USA, finished. Total number of article writing days since New Year is up to 46,5.
Today I have attended 2 meetings and chaired 4 job interviews - plus taken part in handling a potentially threatening situation at the office.
Today I have attended two meetings and chaired two job interviews. I also had a work lunch.
Today I have attended two meetings, one of them in relation to Cognitive lab (specifically about localities).
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, with some reading done and some 400 words added to the articles, primarily the first one, for which I designed and compiled part of the comparative table on wasteful growth in the USA and the Nordic countries. Number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 45,5.
The book Innovation and the Arts: The Value of Humanities Studies for Business (Eds. Piero Formica and John Edmondson, published by Emerald Publishing in 2020) is available in Google Books. It includes my chapter "The true value of "doing well" economically" (pp. 91-109).
See also the publisher´s webpage for the chapter (login/payment required). You may also ask me to share the chapter privately via ResearchGate.
Today I have had an article writing day, with some 1.500 words added to my wasted growth articles and my article "Introducing a notion of accumulated GDP". Among other things, I added a number of references, and finished compiling a table on the occurrence of wasted growth in the USA and the Nordic countries (with some commentary).
Total number of writing days this Spring is up to 44,5.
Alexei Sharov and I have now submitted a revised version of our book manuscript Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism to Springer Nature, after having incorporated revisions after peer review feedback.
Today I have attended three meetings and the summer semester end event of Department of social studies, which was attended by some 25 people and involved two academic presentations.
Today I have attended two meetings and chaired four job interviews for the position as associate professor of psychology.
Today I have had a second article writing day devoted to revising our book Semiotic agency - this time mainly editing the edits of first author Alexei Sharov. In the process I added some 300 words to the book manuscript.
Total number of article writing days this Spring is up to 43,5.
According to Google Scholar (cf. my profile), my research has by now attracted 555 citations (+4 since June 11th). This includes 56 citations in 2021 (+1 since June 11th). My i10-index remains 21 and my h-index 14.
"Umwelt Transitions: Uexküll and environmental change" (2009) and "Umwelt ethics" (2003) are now tied for the top spot with 44 citations each. "The biosemiotic glossary project: Agent, agency" and my ph.d. dissertation (2011) are tied for the 3rd place with 34 citations each.
Sign Systems Studies vol. 49 No. 1-2 (2021), the special issue "Anticipation and change", has appeared. It draws on papers from NASS XI, held in Stavanger in June 2019 (I was chair of the organizing committee).
Table of contents:
Editorial: Anticipation and Change (7-11)
Lauri Linask, Inesa Sahakyan, Aleksei Semenenko
Articles
Morten Tønnessen
Solar energy discourse in the Sunshine State (63-85)
Prisca Augustyn
Music as a non-arbitrary avenue for exploration of the social (86-107)
Juha Ojala
Towards the semiotics of the future: From anticipation to premediation (108-131)
Katre Pärn
Towards an integration of two aspects of semiosis – A cognitive semiotic perspective (132-165)
Piotr Konderak
Metaphor, induction and innovation: Getting outside the box (166-190)
Inesa Sahakyan
Trajectories of anticipation: Preconceptuality and the task of reading habit (191-215)
Sebastian Feil
Narratives and the semiotic freedom of children (216-234)
Sara Lenninger
Donna E. West
Today I have had an article writing day devoted mostly to revisions for our book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism, which we are now conducting after having received a peer-review with some points to work on, with some 300 words added.
Total number of writing days this Spring is up to 42,5.
Today I have attended a job interview (which I chaired), a meeting on extra academic support for students, and the summer seminar of the leadership group at Faculty of social sciences. Tonight we´ll have dinner.
Today I have attended a meeting concerning development of a master degree, the ph.d. defense of Ida Bruheim Jensen of her thesis "Ways of seeing children: Perspectives of social workers in Chile and Norway", and helped organize a celebration event for Ida at the department, with food and drinks. Tonight I will attend the ph.d. defense dinner.
Today I have attended two meetings, and taken part at this year´s master ceremony at Faculty of social sciences, at Clarion Hotel Energy, with 13 master students from Department of social studies receiving lithographies from the Dean while I read out their names.
Today a chronicle written by me was published in the regional daily Stavanger Aftenblad, titled "Vekst i velferdens og miljøkrisens tid" (Growth in the time of welfare and environmental crisis).
Today I have attended 4 meetings. This included a meeting with the child protection service in Stavanger municipality.
My commentary to Denis Noble´s Target article "The illusions of the Modern Synthesis" has been published in issue 14(1) of Biosemiotics.
Full reference:
Tønnessen, Morten 2021. Making the Umwelt Bubble of the Modern Synthesis Burst. Commentary. Biosemiotics 14(1): 121–125. Published online May 9th 2021. DOI: 10.1007/s12304-021-09430-2
According to Google Scholar (cf. my profile) my research has by now attracted 551 citations (+16 since May 28th). This includes 55 citations in 2021 (+11 since May 28th). My i10-index is now 21 (+1), meaning that 21 of my texts have been cited at least 10 times each. My h-index remains 14.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, with some 700 words written on the first of them, and my conception of "wasteful growth" clarified.
Total number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 40,5.
Today I have led 4 job interviews, and attended most of the second MSCA PF seminar offered by the UIS research department.
Today I have attended a HMS faculty meeting (annual) and a MSCA PF webinar held by the UIS research department.
Today I have attended a meeting related to a new study, and chaired the second meeting following up on the employee survey 2021, which took place over 3 hours and involved group work and plenary discussion, with some 25-30 people attending physically or online.
Today I have taken part in 5 meetings. This included the second meeting of the steering group for Cognitive lab, which I chair. By now 5 of the 7 ph.d scholars have been employed, two more are in the process of being recruited. Moreover, there will shortly be a call for an engineer position. The lab has also started working on a strategy, and remodeling of lab premises is currently under consideration.,
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, primarily the first one, with some 600 words written, data for a table updated, and one table made. Total number of writing days this Spring is up to 39,5.
I have just composed the abstract below, for my invited talk at Tartu Summer School in Semiotics 2021, which has the theme "Semiotic horizons: time, memory and future(s)".
**
Semiotic futures: Transformative semiotics and its role in facilitating change in human self-comprehension
Morten Tønnessen
Abstract
The human being is far from the only being that relates to the passage of time. All organisms that are endowed with an Umwelt (subjective lifeworld) live through what Jakob von Uexküll called an Umwelt-tunnel. Moreover, we can safely state that organisms with an Umwelt also go through Umwelt transitions and partake in Umwelt trajectories. But the human species is, however, unique in some of the ways in which it relates to time. We collectively negotiate our memory of the past and our assumptions about the future, and are furthermore consciously aware that we are mortal, and constantly strive to make our lives meaningful in light of this fact.
Quite a bit can be known about future Umwelten. In some contexts, Umwelt predictions can be made about future lifeworlds, in others, we can develop a number of plausible Umwelt scenarios. Such predictions and scenarios can help us make more informed choices whenever we discuss actions, lifestyles or policies that have an impact on future lifeworlds. While Umwelt futurology, the study of future Umwelten, can help us understand aspects of the future, transformative semiotics allows semioticians to engage in discussions about value issues. By ‘transformative semiotics’, I mean a normatively conscious form of semiotics that explicitly relates to value issues and aims to frame a perceived need for normative transformation (i.e., normative change) in semiotic terms.
To be of any use for contemporary society, Umwelt futurology as well as transformative semiotics should be empirically informed. I will briefly summarize and review major changes in common understandings of the environmental crisis, starting with the emerging awareness of a global environmental crisis and ending with the growing acknowledgement of the Anthropocene notion in recent years. While the current predominant understanding of the global environmental crisis is an improvement over earlier understandings on some points, it lacks direction with regard to necessary courses of action.
In 1984, Thomas Sebeok wrote a technical report for the Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation (USA), titled “Communication measures to bridge ten millennia”. This is an interesting example of applied semiotics in the context of long-term future environmental and societal change. I will review Sebeok´s message in the report, and discuss its relevance for contemporary discussions about Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as a climate mitigation measure, which has a similar time perspective.
The question about how humans´ relation to nature has to change over the next century or so, is intimately related to the question about how the self-comprehension of human beings must or should change in the same process. This was a central premise for Deep Ecologist Arne Næss. In light of philosophical anthropology, just as much as it is concerned with environmental or societal change, transformative semiotics is concerned with human self-comprehension. This brings us back to the issue of what role semiotics can play in addressing the urgent issues of the Anthropocene.
As John Deely stressed, human beings´ knowledge and awareness about our semiotic capabilities, and about the real-world consequences of our actions, makes us ethically responsible in ways that animals are not. It also opens up fundamental philosophical questions for renewed reflection. Before we can start acting in sustainable ways, we need to develop a sustainable notion of what it means to be human. This requires a thoughtful revision of our human self-comprehension. Increased sensitivity to our own semiotic capabilities, and to the ways in which our actions have an impact on the semiotic lifeworlds of humans and non-humans alike, is key to managing the sustainability transition.
My article on "how to solve the environmental crisis" has been published (June 4th).
Reference:
Tønnessen, Morten 2021. Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century. Sign Systems Studies 49 (1/2) (special issue “Anticipation and change”, guest editors Lauri Linask, Inesa Sahakyan & Aleksei Semenenko): 12–62. https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2021.49.1-2.02
At 51 pages, this is the longest article I have ever published.
The article is part of a special issue, "Anticipation and change", which draws on papers from the NASS XI conference with the same theme that was held at University of Stavanger in June 2019.
Today I have had half an article writing day, with some 200 words written on the first of my wasted growth articles, and data for a table updated. Total number of article writing days this Spring is up to 38,5.
Today I have attended the meeting of partnership for public health in Rogaland, focused on region of partnership agreements, and a dialogue meeting between Department of social studies and Faculty of social sciences.
Today I have attended 2 employee appraisals (total to date: 65) and one more meeting, and also attended a HMS course in sick-leave follow-up.
Yesterday I participated in 3 meetings. This included the weekly faculty leadership group meeting, and the fourth and last department leadership group meeting for this Spring.
Yesterday I completed a ph.d. project proposal titled "How did Norway become «the world’s best country to live in»? Understanding Norway´s HDI’s performance 1990-2020", and submitted this project proposal, along with one that I developed in January and resubmitted now ("Bærekraftig velferd"), for the faculty´s consideration now this summer.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my Wasted growth articles, with some literature search conducted for all three articles and 800 words added in total. Total number of writing days this Spring is up to 38.
In May I had 7 writing days, and wrote 3.057 words. So far I have written 20.373 words since New Year (net).
In 2020, my one-person company, Spør Filosofen, had 24.069 Norwegian crones in income and 4.123 Norwegian crones in expenses, resulting in profits of 19.846 crones (margin 82,9%). Income was mainly related to book royalties and fee for a couple of public lectures.
Today I have had half an article writing day devoted to my wasted growth articles, specifically the first in the series, with some 300 words written.
Total number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 37.
