Google Scholar: 100+ citations in 2023, 967 in total

According to Google Scholar (cf. my profile), my research has to date attracted 967 citations (+14 since September 21st), including 105 so far in 2023 (+16 since September 21st). 2023 is now my 3rd best year in terms of number of citations, behind 2022 (181) and 2021 (147).

My i10-index remains 36 and my h-index 18.

With 24 citations, 15 of which from 2023, Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism (co-written with Alexei Sharov, published officially in 2021 but in effect in 2022) is now #13 on the list of my most cited texts, tied with "Umwelt trajectories" (2014) and "Wolf land" (2010).

My most cited text remains "Umwelt transitions: Uexküll and environmental change" (2009), with 82 citations altogether, including 16 this year (more than any other year).

Writing more

Today I have had an article writing day, with some 700 words written on my article "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century" (in revision; I have removed the second part of the title, "Umwelt trajectories revisited") and my phenomenology chapter for our book Semiotic agency. 
 
Total number of writing days in 2020 is up to 37,5.

Writing

Today I have had half an article writing day, with some 4 hours spent and 400 words written while revising my article "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century: Umwelt trajectories revisited". Notably, I read the full draft and assessed the need for restructuring, and reworked and elaborated a disposition for the revised version. Total number of writing days in 2020 is up to 36,5.

Half writing day

Today I have had half an article writing day devoted to revision of my article "The societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century: Umwelt trajectories revisited".

Total number of writing days this Spring is up to 36.

Writing day - literature search, writing

Another writing day today, devoted to literature search for the revision of "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century: Umwelt trajectories revisited" (by now I have added 40 references) and work on my phenomenology chapter for the book Semiotic agency. Altogether some 600 words written.

Number of writing days this Spring is up to 35,5.

Writing - on environmental crisis, nature

Today I have had half an article writing day, devoted to the revision of "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century: Umwelt trajectories revisited" and my phenomenology chapter for Semiotic agency, with some 400 words written. Total number of writing days in 2020 is up to 34,5.

Writing

Today I have had half an article writing day (or so), mostly devoted to the revision of my article "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the  21st century: Umwelt trajectories revisited", with some 300 words written. Total number of writing days this Spring is up to 34.

11th article writing day; societal transformation paper finished

Yesterday and last night (sic) I had this Spring´s 11th article writing day, with some 10 hours devoted to my article “Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century: Umwelt trajectories revisited“. A record-breaking (at least for this year) 3.000 words written.

Half article writing day

Today I have had half an article writing day devoted to work on my article "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21th century: Umwelt trajectories revisited", with some 400 words added.

Total number of article writing days so far this Spring is 10.

Writing day

Today I, belatedly, had an article writing day, with some 5 hours devoted primarily to work on my article “Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century: Umwelt trajectories revisited“, and some 600 words added.

Total number of article writing days for January: 9,5.

8th article writing day; table made

Today I have had this Spring´s 8th article writing day, with some 5 hours devoted to my article "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21s century: Umwelt trajectories revisited", with some 700 words written and notably one table (Table 1) developed and commented.

7th article writing day this Spring

Today I have had the 7th article writing day so far this Spring, with some 5 hours devoted to working on my article "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century: Umwelt trajectories revisited", and some 1.000 words added. I have made considerable progress with the framework of the article, making and explaining the figure "Three-dimensional interactive semiotic model of societal transformations".

Writing day - "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century: Umwelt trajectories revisited"

Today I have had half an article writing day devoted to work on my article "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century: Umwelt trajectories revisited", with some 900 words added.

This brings number of article writing days this Spring up to 5.

Half writing day; article work

Today I have had half an article writing day, adding some 600 words altogether to my articles "Wealth and freedom: Beyond planet B" and "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century: Umwelt trajectories revisited". This brings total number of writing days so far this Spring up to 3,5.

Abstract for world congress of semiotics: "Umwelt futurology: What can be known about future Umwelten?"

I have just written and submitted the abstract below to the organizers of the 14th world congress of semiotics, to be held in Buenes Aires, Argentina in September.

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Umwelt futurology: What can be known about future Umwelten?

In the article “Umwelt trajectories” (Tønnessen 2014: 159) I defined an Umwelt trajectory as “the course through evolutionary (or cultural) time taken by the Umwelt of a creature, as defined by its changing relations with the Umwelten of other creatures.” The article also featured “a prolegomenon to Umwelt futurology, the study of future Umwelt trajectories” (ibid.). In this presentation I will take another step towards development of Umwelt futurology.

The notion of Umwelt trajectories builds on a relational understanding of living beings. An underlying premise is that when our lives change, it is chiefly due to changing relations to others. This might imply novel relations, broken relations, or relations that undergo fundamental or more superficial change. 

Umwelt theory, first developed by Jakob von Uexküll (1864-1944), has for the most part been applied in the study of currently living organisms. However, from a methodological point of view, it is also suitable for studies of past and future Umwelten, though this requires some modifications of the theoretical outlook. It also implies a greater degree of uncertainty or margin of error than studies of contemporary Umwelten.

Classical Umwelt theory relies on a combined study of physiology and observed behavior. In the study of future Umwelten (as well as past Umwelten), the physiology of a specific organism may be only partially known, and its behavior cannot be observed. The reason why we still can have some knowledge about future Umwelten, is that it is not the case that “anything goes” in the design of Umwelten. For a start, von Uexküll refers to four near-universal functional cycles, which are in operation in most organisms, and of these four, two must be assumed to be universal. This concerns the functional cycle of food, and that of the medium. In other words, any organism relates to something specific as food, and to something specific as its medium. All organisms with sexual reproduction furthermore operate with the functional cycle of the (sexual) partner, and all organisms capable of enmity with the functional cycle of the enemy. 

Assertions such as these constitute the “minimal Umwelt” with its basic features. The realm of the possible is further constrained by possible variations in physiology, the physiochemical conditions on Earth, and our astronomical circumstances concerning radiation, gravity, the composition of our atmosphere etc. Seen in context with various forecasts of future developments, this provides us with sufficient factual premises for outlining a workable Umwelt futurology. Key sources include forecasts from Earth Systems Science and climate modelling, as well as long-term economic and demographic forecasts.

While there are unavoidably several “unknowns” in the study of future Umwelten, there is also quite a lot that we can know with a substantial degree of certainty. Future Umwelten of particular theoretical interest include the Umwelten of new species, animal GMOs, resurrected species, and the human Umwelt.

"Umwelt trajectories" published online in mid-February

My article "Umwelt Trajectories", published in Semiotica no. 198 (Special Issue on zoosemiotics, guest-edited by Timo Maran), was ahead of print publication published online on February 15th 2014 (DOI: 10.1515/sem-2013-0106). Abstract and keywords is available to non-subscribers.