Participation in three Wonderful World events

Over the last two days I have taken part in three events at the philosophy and science festival "Wonderful World" 2024 which is currently being held in Stavanger, Norway:

• On Thursday 6.30 p.m. I served as a commentator following Einar Duenger Bøhn´s talk "Jaktens etikk og filosofi" (The ethics and philosophy of hunting). Some 20-30 people attended. Kamilla Østerberg was moderator.
• On Thursday 8.30 p.m.  I served as a commentator following Rupert Sheldrake´s talk "Is the universe conscious?", along with David Ploog. Some 130 people attended. Karen Aalen was moderator.
• Earlier today (Friday), at noon, I took part in the discussion panel "Panpsykisme - brobygger mellom materie og bevissthet?" (Panpsychism - building bridges between matter and consciousness?" along with Hedda Hassel Mørch and Einar Duenger Bøhn (Vegard Møller was moderator). Some 60 people attended.

I think it all went well, in terms of engaging content.

#41,5

Today I have had half a book writing day, with some 200 words added to my book manuscript Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement, which is contracted with Bloomsbury Academic.

In May as a whole, I had only 4,5 writing days, the least by far this year, with 1.808 written words logged. So far this Spring I´ve logged 24.364 words written.

#41

Today I have had an article writing day, with work done on three writing projects, namely a journal article on democracy issues I will co-write with Svein Tuastad, my contributions to the forthcoming book Mars and the Earthlings, and the forthcoming journal article «Hva Arne Næss kan lære oss om økonomifagets tverrfaglighet» (What Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics), which I proof-read. The article is co-written with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen and will soon appear in Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift.

Council of animal ethics meeting attended

Yesterday I attended the meeting of Norway´s Council for animal ethics, which was held at Thon Hotel Opera in Oslo. Among other things, I gave a status report on our consultative statement on the Norwegian pension fund global´s investments in food production and similar, and on two international declarations on animal consciousness (Cambridge and New York).

Participating in three events during "Wonderful world" 2024 philosophy and science festival

This week the philosophy and science festival "Wonderful World" 2024 is held in Stavanger, Norway. I take part in three events:

• On Thursday 7 p.m. I serve as commentator following Einar Duenger Bøhn´s talk "Jaktens etikk og filosofi" (The ethics and philosophy of hunting) 
• On Thursday 8.30 p.m.  serve as commentator following Rupert Sheldrake´s talk "Is the universe conscious?"
• On Friday at noon I take part in the discussion panel "Panpsykisme - brobygger mellom materie og bevissthet?" (Panpsychism - building bridges between matter and consciousness?" along with Hedda Hassel Mørch and Einar Duenger Bøhn (Vegard Møller is moderator)

Paper "Umwelt phenomenology, the human condition, and the nature crisis" presented at IAEP 2024

Today I have presented the paper “Umwelt phenomenology, the human condition, and the nature crisis” at the Twenty-Eighth Annual Meeting of The International Association for Environmental Philosophy (IAEP 2024, held virtually May 22-24th 2024). Some 15 people attended.

#40; Bloomsbury book contract for CCS book finalized

Today I have had an article writing day devoted to the article "Friluftsliv in therapeutic residential care: Taking adolescents out to find a way in", which I co-write with Joakim Jiri Haaland, with some 1.100 words added to the text.

I also signed - again, and this time it was finalized on both ends - a book contract with Bloomsbury Academic for my book project Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement, which I will write over the next 12 months.

Peer review

I have recently done a peer review for British Poultry Science.

#39; book contract with Bloomsbury Academic signed

Today I have had what ended up as half a writing day, with work done on the article "Friluftsliv in therapeutic residential care: Taking adolescents out to find a way in", which I co-write with Joakim Jiri Haaland - and some 200 words added to the text. I also signed a book contract with Bloomsbury Academic, concerning my book project Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement.

Peer review

I have recently done a peer review for Sign Systems Studies.

Third and final Erasmus exchange Anthropocene lecture given at Alma Mater Europaea in Ljubljana

Yesterday, Tuesday May 14th, I gave the lecture “The Anthropocene: Alpha and omega?” in Ljubljana, at Instititum Studiorum Humanitatis, Alma Mater Europaea (AMEU–ISH). Some 10 people attended (physically and digitally in total). The lecture was facilitated and chaired by Luka Trebežnik.

Last day in Slovenia - ZRS Koper visited

Today, at my last work day during my Erasmus exchange, I have been visiting The Science and Research Centre Koper (ZRS Koper), specifically their Institute for philosophical and religious studies. Tomorrow I will be flying home. My host in Slovenia has been Lenart Škof.

#38,5

Today I have had half an article day devoted to the article "Friluftsliv in therapeutic residential care: Taking adolescents out to find a way in" which i co-write with Joakim Jiri Haaland, with some 200 words added to the text, and about 100 words removed.

Google Scholar: 1.134 citations; 72 so far in 2024; first "Wasted GDP in the USA" citation

According to Google scholar (cf. my profile) my research has now attracted 1.134 citations (+34 since April 22nd). This includes 72 citations in 2024 (+31 since April 22nd). My h-index remains 19 and my i10-index 37.

Recent citations include the very first for my article "Wasted GDP in the USA", which is cited in the technical report "Climate Change and Productivity: Exploring the Links" released by The Productivity Institute and authored by Dirk Pilat. According to Google´s metrics, 79 of my texts have been cited, and "Wasted GDP in the USA" now ranks as #69 (i.e., my 69th most cited paper) along with ten more papers.

IAEP 2024 paper rescheduled for May 24th

My paper «Umwelt phenomenology, the human condition, and the nature crisis» has been rescheduled. To be held at the Twenty-Eighth Annual Meeting of the International Association for Environmental Philosophy, IAEP 2024, which is held online May 22-24th, my presentation is now scheduled for Friday May 24th at 9-10.30 a.m. EDT (which compares to 3-4.30 p.m. CEST). It is still a part of the session “Phenomenology, Language, and Hermeneutics” (moderated by Jonathan Beever). 

See also (now outdated):

Paper "Umwelt phenomenology, the human condition, and the nature crisis" scheduled for presentation online at IAEP 2024 May 22nd

Poster for my Ljubljana lecture May 14th

The poster below advertises my lecture in Ljubljana, titled «The Anthropocene: Alpha and omega?», which will be held tomorrow at Alma Mater Europaea, Institutum Studiorum Humanitatis.

#38

Today I have had half an article writing day devoted to the second article I am co-writing with Joakim Jiri Haaland on use of friluftsliv activities in the context of child protection, with some 100 words added to the text. So far this Spring I have had 38 writing days.

Second lecture given in Trento - Erasmus exchange lectures with Anthropocene theme

Today I gave the lecture “The perspective of the Anthropocene and what it says about humans´ place in nature” at University of Trento´s Department of humanities. Some 10 people attended. The lecture was given related to Carlo Brentari´s Bachelor-level course in philosophical anthropology, and was also open to the public.

First lecture given in Trento - Erasmus exchange lectures with Anthropocene theme

Today I gave a guest lecture for ph.d. students at University of Trento´s Department of humanities, titled "Semiotic agency and the Anthropocene”. About 10 people followed the lecture physically or digitally.

Two abstracts reviewed for world congress in semiotics

I have reviewed two abstracts submitted to the organizers of the 16th world congress of semiotics, to be held in Warsaw, Poland, in early September, in my capacity as a member of the congress´ scientific committee.

Lecture "Semiotic agency and the Anthropocene" - with Zoom link

On Thursday May 9th at 4 p.m. CEST I will give a lecture for ph.d. students at University of Trento´s Department of humanities titled "Semiotic agency and the Anthropocene". The lecture can be followed via Zoom by using this link.

See also:

Two forthcoming lectures in Trento, Italy May 9th and 10th

Publication points 2023 - #6 at department; #2 among professors

I have just looked at the publication points results at my department and faculty for 2023. With 3,4 publication points, from 2 journal articles and 2 book chapters, I rank as #6 at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies in terms of publication points overall, and #2 among professors employed at the department.

With 5,1 publication points, Sarah Hean (professor of social work) had the most publication points among the professors of the department. With 6,5 publication points, Francesco Margoni (associate professor of psychology) did best by this measure overall.

Featured in Khrono news story April 17th

Yesterday I discovered another Khrono news story featuring me, titled "Massiv kritikk mot ledelsens ønske om kutt i forskningstid" (Massive criticism of leadership´s desire for reduced research time) and featuring a citation from me as well as a photo (by Tord Paulson) and link to the news story featuring an interview with me published February 28th. This news story was published April 17th and was written by Hege Larsen. It mostly concerns hearing statements concerning the suggested work planning guidelines.

Chapter "A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition and the environmental crisis" published

My book chapter "A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition and the environmental crisis" has now been published, as part of the book Elemental-Embodied Thinking for a New Era (eds. Lenart Škof, Sashinungla, Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir).

Reference:

Tønnessen, Morten 2024. A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition and the environmental crisis. Pp. 99–117 in Lenart Škof, Sashinungla, Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir (eds.), Elemental-Embodied Thinking for a New Era (Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures 42). Springer. Published May 4th 2024.

NASS board meeting attended

Today I have attended the board meeting of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS), online. Topics included conference planning, and NASS representation in the International Association for Semiotic Studies (IASS).

#37,5

Today I have had half an article day with some work done related to two articles of mine, one of them work-titled "Wasted GDP in major economies" and the other one being my "UNDP letter" addressing the HDI´s maximum threshold for income (see also the previous post). So far this Autumn I have had 37,5 writing days.

HDRO removes Kahnemann & Deaton reference after facing criticism for justification of maximum income threshold in HDI

The Human Development Report Office (HDRO) in New York, which is part of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has made a change in the technical notes for the human development report and the accompanying Human development index (HDI). For the 2021/22 report (and in the preceding years), the maximum limit for income was justified by reference to a paper by Kahnemann and Deaton:

The maximum is set at $75,000 per capita. Kahneman and Deaton (2010)* have shown that there is virtually no gain in human development and wellbeing from annual income above $75,000 per capita. 

* High income improves evaluation of life but not emotional well-being 

In the summer of 2022, I pointed out to the Chief statistician at the HDRO that this justification is wrong and misleading on several accounts, since the claims made in the technical notes were not supported by claims made in Kahneman and Deaton´s article. The chief statistician acknowledged that I was correct. My criticism was repeated in an invited talk I gave in the HDRO Seminar (from a distance, digitally) on March 21st 2023.

In the technical notes for the 2023/24 report, it now says, with no reference:

"The maximum is set at $75,000 per capita so that additional income above the maximum does not directly contribute to a country’s HDI value or improve its ranking."

While the HDRO has in this way removed an erronous justification for the maximum income threshold, the threshold now stands without any justification whatsoever.

Paper "Can welfare and environmental concerns be measured in extension of GDP?" scheduled for presentation June 28th at ISQOLS 2024

The paper "Can welfare and environmental concerns be measured in extension of GDP?", developed by Jan Karlstrøm and me, has been scheduled for oral presentation at ISQOLS 2024, the 22nd annual conference of International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS), which is to be held in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, June 25-28th. Our paper will be presented on Friday June 28th at 15.30, as part of session 23C "Beyond GDP: New Understandings and Measures of Progress".

8 peer-reviews done for Fondazione Cariplo

I have just finished peer-review of 8 applications for Fondazione Cariplo´s Young researchers scheme (focused on granting of post.doc. projects). The foundation is based in Milan, Italy.