Tonight I have had half an article day, wrapping up and finishing the full draft of my chapter manuscript "Nosology and semiotics", with some 200 words written in the process. Number of article writing days this Spring is up to 16,5.
I have just submitted the abstract below to the organizers of the 22nd gathering in biosemiotics, which will be held at Palacký University in Olomouc, the Czech Republic June 27th - July 1st 2022.
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Zoosemiotics beyond Sebeok
Author: Morten Tønnessen
Email: ***@gmail.com
Affiliation: Professor of philosophy, Department of social studies, University of Stavanger, Norway
The chapter presented here (Tønnessen, forthcoming) outlines semiotic studies in ethology and zoology, starting with foundational work and contemporary developments and proceeding to relevant methodologies and prospective future studies. The conception of zoosemiotics as a field of study has evolved considerably since Thomas Sebeok coined the term in 1963, and currently signifies a far more comprehensive field than what Sebeok’s original definition of zoosemiotics as “the scientific study of signalling behaviour in and across animal species” indicates (1963: 465). In contrast, Maran et al. (2011: 8) distinguish between ethological zoosemiotics and anthropological zoosemiotics, with the former overlapping with Sebeok’s initial notion of zoosemiotics and the latter programmatically expanding the conception of zoosemiotics. The contemporary notion of zoosemiotics entails that the semiotic study of animals cannot simply be understood as a synthesis between semiotics and ethology, although such a synthesis remains at its core. It must furthermore be understood as engaging and intersecting with ecology, cultural studies and other fields of study where animals appear in one form or another. Contemporary zoosemiotics is markedly post-Sebeokian in that it deviates from Sebeok’s outlook in the framing of the human being’s position within nature at large. In similar terms, it also deviates from Sebeok’s worldview in the framing of culture’s position within nature. In the first case, contemporary zoosemiotics is arguably more consistently pluralistic, and has less of an anthropocentric bias, than Sebeokian zoosemiotics. In the second case, in its view on the relation between culture and nature, it is arguably more consistently holistic. These developments, representing deviations from classical Sebeokian zoosemiotics, appear to be regarded as advances by most scholars and students in the newest generation of zoosemioticians – and to be more in line with the contemporary Zeitgeist among concerned scientists and environmental and animal protection activists.
In modern science, the agency and subjectivity of animals has tended to be neglected. This har largely limited studies of animals to quantitative methods, whether in the study of animals in themselves, or in the study of how animals relate to human beings. Today, zoosemiotics is arguably the theoretically and empirically soundest approach to “taking the animal’s perspective”. More research is needed on how humans relate to animals. And more research is needed on how animals relate to humans. In the near future, work is needed that connects semiotic studies in ethology and zoology with issues in global human ecology, develops flexible zoosemiotic tools and methodology for application by practitioners such as field ethologists, veterinarians, zookeepers etc., and makes further connections between semiotic studies of animals and phenomenology, ethnography, and anthropology by developing tools and methodology tailor-made for studies related to human agents and their dealings with animals.
REFERENCES
Maran, T., D. Martinelli and A. Turovski, eds. (2011). Readings in Zoosemiotics (Semiotics, Communication and Cognition 8), Berlin: DeGruyter Mouton.
Sebeok, T. A. (1963). Review. Language, 39: 448–466.
Tønnessen, M., forthcoming, 2022. Semiotics in ethology and zoology. In Bloomsbury Semiotics (4 volumes, ed. Jamin Pelkey), volume 2, Semiotics in the Natural and Technical Sciences (ed. Stephanie Walsh Matthews). Bloomsbury Academic.
According to Google Scholar (cf. my profile) my research has now attracted 700 citations (+3 since February 19th), including 173 citations in 2021 (+1) and 10 citations in 2022 (+1). My i10-index remains 27 and my h-index 15.
Some history:
My first Google Scholar citation occurred in 2002.
By April 2013 I had 38 citations, and a verified Google Scholar profile.
I passed 100 citations in the winter of 2016.
I passed 200 citations in the summer of 2017.
I passed 300 citations in the summer of 2018.
I passed 400 citations in the autumn of 2019.
I passed 500 citations in Spring 2021.
I passed 600 citations in the autumn of 2021.
And now in the winter of 2022 I passed 700 citations.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to my chapter "Nosology and semiotics" and the literature review article I am co-writing with my research assistant Jan Karlstrøm, with some 400 words written altogether. Number of writing days this Spring is up to 15.
Today I have attended 3 scheduled meetings, and been physically at the office for the first time for almost two weeks. Meetings included a steering group meeting for our work with establishing a cand. psychology degree.
Today I have had 4 scheduled meetings. This included the faculty leadership group meeting, and the Spring´s second department leadership group meeting. All meetings have been digital since I currently work from home with covid.
Today I have had an article writing day with some 500 words added to my book chapter "Nosology and semiotics", and several texts read. Number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 14.
According to Google Scholar (cf. my profile, which now lists 113 texts) my research has by now attracted 697 citations (+55 since January 30th). This includes 172 citations in 2021 (+50 since January 30th) and 9 citations so far in 2022. My h-index is now 15 (+1 since January 27th) and my i10-index 27 (+1 since January 27th).
The big change since last time is the registrations of citations in our book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism, which was recently published yet is counted as a 2021 publication.
My 2021 citation numbers now surpass any earlier year by a huge margin.
Our book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism has appeared in excerpts in Google Books.
We have been informed that our article "Recreation in the outdoors – exploring the friluftsliv experience of adolescents at residential care" - first author Joakim Jiri Haaland, second author me - has been accepted for publication in Child & Youth Services.
Today I have had an article writing day with some 300 words written altogether. I have done work on two articles, the literature review article on GDP, and my second wasted growth article. Number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 13.
Today I have attended 2 scheduled meetings and followed most of the faculty´s "Fagdag" (academic day), which had the theme work life relevance.
My book chapter previously titled "Neurosemiotics across species" has now been renamed “Beyond the human animal: Towards a cross-species neurosemiotics”, after the suggestion of the editors. The chapter is to appear soon in Adolfo García & Agustin Ibanez (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Neurosemiotics.
Yesterday I edited and submitted the abstract below to the organizers of the 2022 in-person conference of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS 2022, with the theme "Quality-of-Life for Resilient Futures: Sustainability, Equity, and Wellbeing"), which is to take place in Burlington, Vermont, August 3rd-6th.
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The True Value of ‘Doing Well’ Economically
Recent efforts to go beyond gross domestic product as a measure of economic performance raise important questions about the nature of the economy, including: What is the best measure of a sound, flourishing economy, and what is the purpose of ‘doing well’ in economic terms? One possible measure of the soundness of an economy is the extent to which it results in better lives for humans. In the bigger picture, a sound, flourishing economy should also be consistent with good, and perhaps optimal, lives for non-humans, and well-functioning ecosystems. To go beyond anthropocentric notions of economic performance, a degree of integration between economics, philosophy and biology is required. A merely economic outlook can easily lead to the commodification of each and every organism and natural resource, thus neglecting the agency, interests and intrinsic value of animals and other non-humans. To truly ‘serve all’ in an Anthropocene-era world, economists need to acknowledge that there are economic stakeholders beyond humans. This would make economics more compatible with current outlooks in normative ethics with regard to the value of animals, biodiversity, etc., and could be part of a radical reconceptualization of the nature of the economy in which economic value is situated within value theory in a wider sense.
This paper is based on a published chapter: Tønnessen, M. 2020. The true value of „doing well“ economically. In Piero Formica & John Edmondson (eds.), Innovation and the Arts: The Value of Humanities Studies for Business, pp. 91–109. Bingley: Emerald Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-885-820201005
Today I have attended a scheduled meeting and half a BUFDIR webinar (until power failure occurred).
Today I have attended 2 scheduled meetings. This included this Spring´s first department council meeting, where we had a major discussion of work placements (praksis).
Today I have attended 2 scheduled meetings.
I am currently working from home office since one of my children has tested positive for covid (today).
Today I have had an article day devoted to the literature review article on GDP I am co-authoring and my chapter "Nosology and semiotics", with some 400 words added to the texts altogether. Number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 12.
Today I have had an article writing day devoted to having a look at the online appearance of our recently published book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism, and writing altogether some 300 words on my second wasted growth article and the review article I am co-writing on GDP. Number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 11.
On Wednesday I was informed by Springer that the book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism, which I have co-written (as second author) with Alexei Sharov, has been published. On that day this did not appear to be the case judging by the book´s webpage, which was unchanged, with no sales links. By Thursday, however, info online was updated, and the book can now be bought in Hardcover version (109.99 Euro) or eBook version (93.08 Euro).
The book is said to be part of the following eBook packages (for institutional subscribers):
I am still waiting to receive print copy as well as eBook version personally.
In today´s print edition of the Norwegian daily Nationen the chronicle "Dyreparker - bevaring av truede dyrearter eller underholdning?", co-written by me, Guri Larsen, Kristian Ellingsen-Dalskau and Knut Bøe, on behalf of Norway´s Council for animal ethics, was published. The chronicle appeared online on February 6th. The chronicle builds on and refers to a recent consultative statement on the topic recently issued by the council and mainly written by me.
Today I have attended 4 scheduled meetings. This included a steering group meeting for the CubaNor project.
Today I have attended 2 scheduled meetings. This included a work meeting devoted to working out program for a 2-day bachelor gathering at the department. Today I also follow a welfare seminar by Network for welfare research digitally.
Today I have had half an article writing day with some 300 words added altogether to my book project Captured and book chapter "Nosology and semiotics". Total number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 10.
Today I have had an article writing day, with some 200 words and a part figure added to my second wasted growth article. Number of writing days so far this Spring is up to 9,5.
Today I have attended 6 (sic) scheduled meetings. This included a planning meeting on a 2-day bachelor degree gathering at the department that will take place in March.
Today I have attended 3 scheduled meetings and a radio interview - as part of a panel during "spørretimen" in NRK P2´s Ekko, "Mennesket - dyrenes beste venn?" (humans - the animals´ best friends?) with Jan Erlend Leine as program host and Kristian Dalskau-Ellingsen and Ragnhild Sollund as the other panel guests.
