Today I have had a book writing day, with some 1550 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. This is my most productive writing day so far in 2025 in terms of number of words written. So far this Spring I have had 36 writing days, including 29,5 book writing days.
By now I have written more than 50.000 words on the book manuscript, or about two thirds of the manuscript.
I have agreed to co-write a chapter for Springer´s forthcoming Handbook of Environmental Philosophy along with Jonathan Beever.
Preliminary reference:
— in process, with Jonathan Beever: Environmental semiotics. In: Nathan Kowalsky and Richard Kover (eds.), Handbook of Environmental Philosophy (Handbooks in Philosophy), Section II: Main Theoretical Currents. Springer Nature.
Since I last mentioned it here in the blog, the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS) has issued two new newsletters:
NASS Newsletter 25_2024 (Autumn), issued in November 2024
NASS Newsletter 26_2025 (Spring), issued in April 2025
I am a co-editor of the newsletter along with primus motor Inesa Sahakyan. Here is a link to all NASS newsletters published to date.
I have recently done peer-reviews for the journals Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, Kultur & Klasse (a Danish journal) and Biosemiotics.
Today I have had a book writing day, with some 1000 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 35 writing days, including 28,5 book writing days.
According to Google Scholar (cf. my profile) my research has to date attracted 1362 citations (+23 since March 5th). 222 of these are from 2024 (+7 since March 5th), further solidifying its position as my best year ever in terms of number of citations. So far in 2025 I have gathered 27 citations (+15 since March 5th). My h-index remains 20, while my i10-index is now 41 (+1 since March 5th). This means that 41 of my publications have 10 or more citations each.
Today I have had what ended up as half a book writing day, with some 450 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 34 writing days, including 27,5 book writing days.
I have just submitted my chapter "A Biosemiotic Perspective on the Human Condition and the Environmental Crisis" to the Expanded Reason Awards, with a CV, an extended abstract, and a 3.000 word "explanatory document" written for the occasion.
Today I have had an article writing day, mostly devoted to writing a brief popular science article for the magazine Astronomi published by Norsk Astronomisk Selskap. It came in at around 1.500 words, and I ended up titling it "Livet på Mars" (Life on Mars). The content is loosely based on our recently published book Mars and the Earthlings: A realistic view on Mars exploration and settlement. I also looked into a recent Live better manuscript submission (cf. previous post).
So far this Spring I have had 33,5 writing days, including 6,5 article writing days.
I have been listed as a co-author of the article "The Golden Mean of Happiness: Need Balance and Well-Being Across 70 Countries and Regions", which has been submitted to Nature. The co-authorship is based on my data gathering in Norway in the Live Better research consortium.
Preliminary reference:
— submitted, with Ewa Szumowska et al. The Golden Mean of Happiness: Need Balance and Well-Being Across 70 Countries and Regions. Submitted to Nature.
Today I have had a book writing day, with some 600 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 32,5 writing days, including 27 book writing days.
Today I have had half an article writing day, partly devoted to work on the revision of the book chapter manuscript "Steffens´ early outlook reconsidered: Nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene", with some 100 words added to the manuscript in the process. I have now finished the revision.
I also reviewed and gave feedback on a draft white paper based on our recently published book Mars and the Earthlings: A realistic view on Mars exploration and settlement.
So far this Spring I have had 31,5 writing days, including 5,5 article writing days.
Today I have had a book writing day, with some 900 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. I also watched the webinar "Quantifying and mitigating subsurface risk in CO2 storage projects", organized by Finding Petroleum/Carbon Capture Journal.
So far this Spring I have had 31 writing days, including 26 book writing days. In March, I had a total of 14,5 writing days (possibly a record?), including 13 book writing days, and I logged 13.393 words written altogether (a new record in terms of monthly total as far as I can tell), of which 13.017 words written on my monograph manuscript.
Today I attended the trial lecture and ph.d. defence of Jacob Lee Tom at University of Stavanger. The theme of the trial lecture was “Travelling Concepts: A Methodological Challenge”, while Jacob´s ph.d. thesis is titled "Radical Moderation: Time and History in Twentieth-Century Norwegian Literature". Opponents were Sissel Furuseth (University of Oslo) and Zoltàn Boldizsàr Simon (Bielefeld University, Germany). I have co-supervised Jacob along with Dean Krouk from University of Wisconsin-Madison, while my UIS colleague Tyson Ashley Retz has been main supervisor.
Unfortunately I had to cancel my participation in the doctoral dinner due to a health emergency.
Today I have had a book writing day, with some 1.150 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 30 writing days, including 25 book writing days.
By now I have written about 60% of the book manuscript.
Today I have had half an article writing day, partly devoted to work on the revision of the book chapter manuscript "Steffens´ early outlook reconsidered: Nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene", with some 100 words added to the manuscript in the process. I also accepted to contribute with two entries in a prospective special issue (journal to be agreed) titled "CONTRADICTionary: An Almanac of Resistance", which will be organised around the ca. 200 words the Trump administration is attempting to ban from science.
So far this Spring I have had 29 writing days, including 5 article writing days.
Today I have updated my brief-version CV.
Excerpts:
ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
As of March 2025: Altogether 115 academic publications (as either author or editor). This includes 64 peer-reviewed international publications, including 2 co-authored scientific monographs, 22 peer-reviewed English-language book chapters with international publishers, and 37 peer-reviewed articles published in international journals.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
Peer-reviewed papers presented in-person at international conferences in Argentina, Bulgaria, Colombia, the Czech republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the UK, and USA – altogether in 24 countries.
FURTHER INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENTS
I have attended further academic and related events in Canada, France, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, and South Korea; done field work in Brazil; and spoken online to audiences in Brazil, Finland, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, the UK and the USA. Including in-person conference presentations, I have engaged directly with audiences in 29 countries.
PEER-REVIEWS FOR SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS
I have done peer-reviews of scientific manuscripts for The Anthropocene Review, Biosemiotics, British Poultry Science, Cognitive Semiotics, Concentric: Literary and Cultural Studies, Environmental and Sustainability Indicators, Environmental Humanities, Environmental Philosophy, Humanimalia – a journal of human/animal interface studies, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, Journal of Comparative Social Work, Kultur & Klasse, New formations, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, Otherness: Essays and Studies; Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences, Philozofia, Plants, People, Planet, Public Journal of Semiotics, Semiotica, Sign Systems Studies, Sosiologi idag, Theoria, and Visual studies; altogether for 25 scientific journals.
Today I have had a book writing day, with some 800 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 28,5 writing days, including 24 book writing days.
By now in March, I have logged 11.244 words written altogether during writing days, which I believe is a new montly record in terms of academic writing (the last record appears to have been 11.225 words written in December 2020).
Today I discovered that my 2023 article "Wasted GDP in the USA" has been included in another collection by Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, where it appeared, namely the collection "Top 50 papers: 2015-2024". The collection was released January 20th 2025.
"The articles have been selected based on a combination of metrics (citation counts, downloads and Altmetric scores)", according to the journal. The collection features "some of this journal’s most impactful and accessed research from the past decade". Altogether the journal appears to have published about 4.000 articles over its first decade.
My article is one of 15 articles published in the past three years (2022-2024) that have been included in the collection.
I have recently peer-reviewed 17 abstracts as a member of the scientific committee of The 14th conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies along with the 15th Annual Lotman Days (NASS XIV), with the theme “Creativity – Complexity – Intelligence“, which is to be held in Tallinn, Estonia, June 11–13.
Moreover, even more recently, I have taken part in assessing candidates for receiving NASS graduate student grants.
Today I have had half an article writing day devoted to work on the revision of the book chapter manuscript "Steffens´ early outlook reconsidered: Nature conceptions of the industrial-age Anthropocene", following peer-review, adding some 200 words to the manuscript in the process. So far this Spring I have had 27,5 writing days, including 4,5 article writing days.
Today I have had a book writing day, with some 900 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 27 writing days, including 23 book writing days.
By now in Mars I have written more than 10.000 words on the book manuscript.
Over the last three days, I have had half an article writing day devoted to work on the article "Når gode råd er plagsomme" which I co-write with Svein Tuastad. In the process, which also included a meeting, I added some 100 words to the manuscript. So far this Spring I have had 26 writing days, including 4 article writing days.
According to Google Scholar, I remain #117 among University of Stavanger researcher profiles in terms of number of citations (1345 now vs. 1088 April 4th 2024, cf. previous post).
See also my Google scholar profile.
Today I attended the third meeting of the program council of the philosophy and science festival "Wonderful world", which is held in Stavanger, Norway, May 28-31st (there was also a meeting March 6th which I attended).
Today I have given the seminar "Hvordan løse klimakrisen?" (How to solve the climate crisis) in the environmental psychology course that is part of the University of Stavanger´s master programme in psychology. About 10 students attended online.
Today, during sick leave, I have had half a book writing day, with some 1.050 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 25,5 writing days, including 22 book writing days.
According to ResearhGate, my research publications registered there have now reached 200 recommendations from fellow researchers.
See my ResearchGate profile and my 99 research items registered there to date.
I have just submitted the abstract below to the organizers of the 25th gathering in biosemiotics, which will be held in Rotterdam August 25-29th.
***
Ecological semiotics
ABSTRACT
This presentation draws on my recently published encyclopedia chapter “Ecological semiotics” (Tønnessen 2024). Ecological semiotics, or ecosemiotics, can be understood as the study of sign use by organisms in an ecological context. In ecology, semiotic phenomena and sign processes occur at different levels of biological organization, and distinctive kinds of sign use is characteristic of different kinds of interspecies interaction. Ecosemiotic studies help to explain how ecological complexity can be understood in semiotic terms, and how sentient organisms interpret their environment and make choices that are informed by their sign use. The basic theoretical outlook of ecological semiotics includes lifeworld perspectives, particularly represented by the Umwelt theory of Jakob von Uexküll (2010). This connects ecosemiotics with phenomenology, subjectivity and agency. In a more rudimentary sense, even plants, fungi and microorganisms have agency which can be framed in semiotic terms. A semiotic approach to ecology is particularly pertinent in the context of human ecology and contemporary discussions concerning environmental sustainability. While ecosemiotics is amply informative applied to general ecology, it is especially pertinent in the context of understanding how human agency and sign use affects the environment at large. Ecological semiotics can help us understand how genuinely human sign use stands out from non-human sign use, and the ways in which human sign use is subject to cultural variation. Crucially, a semiotic approach to environmental issues can be informative with regard to understanding how human behaviour and sign use affects non-human lifeworlds by triggering environmental change which is experienced in sign-mediated ways. This positions ecosemiotics to address issues of environmental sustainability.
REFERENCES
Tønnessen, Morten 2024. “Ecological semiotics”. Chapter. Encyclopedia of Ecology (3rd edition) (Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-21964-1.00018-5.
von Uexküll, Jacob 2010. A foray into the worlds of animals and humans with A theory of meaning. O’Neil, J. D. (transl.). Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press.
Today, during sick leave, I have had half a book writing day, with some 300 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 24,5 writing days, including 21 book writing days.
I have had a record of 4,5 book writing days this week, and written more than 5.000 words. So far in March I have written more on the monograph than in any other month.
Today, during sick leave, I have had a book writing day, with some 1.200 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 24 writing days, including 20,5 book writing days.
Today was the second-most productive writing day so far this year in terms of number of words written.
According to Springer Nature, these are my most accessed Springer articles:
1 (1). The Ethics of Laying Hen Genetics (Mia Fernyhough et al., Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 2019) 14.986 (12.924)
2 (3). Wasted GDP in the USA (Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2023) 14.297 (5.144)
3 (2). Umwelt Transitions: Uexküll and Environmental Change (Biosemiotics, 2009) 6.175 (5.155)
4 (4). Phenomenology and Biosemiotics (Morten Tønnessen, Timo Maran & Alexei Sharov, Biosemiotics, 2018) 5.675 (4.648)
5 (5). Jesper Hoffmeyer’s Biosemiotic Legacy (Morten Tønnessen, Alexei Sharov & Timo Maran, Biosemiotics, 2019) 3.789 (3.279)
6 (6). Current Human Ecology in the Amazon and beyond: a Multi-Scale Ecosemiotic Approach (Biosemiotics, 2020) 3.673 (3.041)
7 (7). Towards Synthesis of Biology and Semiotics (Alexei Sharov, Timo Maran & Morten Tønnessen, Biosemiotics, 2015) 3.022 (2.672)
8 (8). Biosemiotic Achievement Award for the Year 2020 (Claudio Julio Rodríguez Higuera & Morten Tønnessen, Biosemiotics, 2021) 2.908 (2.644)
9 (9). Comprehending the Semiosis of Evolution (Alexei Sharov, Timo Maran & Morten Tønnessen, Biosemiotics, 2016) 2.892 (2.546)
10 (10). Making the Umwelt Bubble of the Modern Synthesis Burst (Biosemiotics, 2021) 2.552 (2.131)
Combined these 10 articles have been accessed 59.969 times to date (vs. 44.184 as of November 2023, meaning they have been accessed a total of 15.785 times over the last one and a half year or so). My two most read articles account for almost half of the total of the top 10 articles, and "Wasted GDP in the USA" accounts for more than half of my top 10 article reads since November 2023.
I gave a similar overview in the post "My 10 most accessed articles with Springer Nature; ca. 44.000 accesses combined" (November 2023). Changes in ranking and number of accesses are shown above.
See also:
"Wasted GDP in the USA" reaches 12.000 accesses (September 2024)
The 39 most read texts on my ResearchGate profile (July 2023)
Webstats, Scribd: 14 documents with 1,000+ reads (January 2014)
The Wonderful World festival has released parts of its programme for this year´s festival, which is to be held May 28-31st in Stavanger, Norway. I am scheduled to take part in the event "Mars og jordboerne" (Mars and the earthlings), with Brage W. Johansen, on Saturday May 31st.
Today, during sick leave, I have had a book writing day, with some 1.300 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 23 writing days, including 19,5 book writing days.
Today was the most productive writing day so far this year in terms of number of words written. By now I have written more than 40.000 words on the book manuscript.
Today, during sick leave, I have had a book writing day, with some 1.200 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 22 writing days, including 18,5 book writing days.
Today was the most productive writing day so far this year in terms of number of words written.
Today, during sick leave, I have had a book writing day, with some 1.100 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 21 writing days, including 17,5 book writing days.
Today was the second-most productive so far this year in terms of number of words written. By now I have written about half of the book manuscript.
Today, during sick leave, I have had a book writing day, with some 700 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 20 writing days, including 16,5 book writing days. This week I have written more than 3.000 words over 3,5 writing days.
I also followed a webinar organized by Carbon Capture Journal, "Approaches to CO2 storage monitoring".
Yesterday I took part in the first Wounderful Tour event this Spring, ahead of the Wonderful world festival in May, arranged by Kåkå Kverulantkatedralen. The event, at Vitenfabrikken in Sandnes, was titled «Drømmen om verdensrommet» (The dream about space) and featured a panel consisting of me and Brage W. Johansen and chaired by Runa Norheim. Ahead of the panel, the movie "Capcom Go – Apollohistorien" was shown in the planetarium. Some 25 people attended the event.
I have been informed by the organizers of the 14th Conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies, organized jointly with the 15th Annual Lotman Days with the theme “Creativity – Complexity – Intelligence”, which is to take place in Tallinn, Estonia, June 11–13, 2025, that my paper "Ecological semiotics, lifeworld perspectives, and sustainability" has been accepted for oral presentation.
PS: I am part of the scientific committee of the conference, but of course we don´t evaluate our own abstracts.
Today, during sick leave, I have had a book writing day, with some 700 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 19 writing days, including 15,5 book writing days.
The article "Examining the connection between position-based power and social status across 70 cultures" has just been published in British Journal of Social Psychology. This is the first article from the Live Better research consortium where I am credited as a co-author (based on data gathering in Norway).
Reference:
— 2025, by Arkadiusz Wasiel, Maciej R. Górski, Michael Harris Bond, Victoria Wai Lan Yeung, Plamen Akaliyski, Grace Akell, Joonha Park, Mohsen Joshanloo, Boris Sokolov, M. Azhar Hussain, Liman Man Wai Li, Mateusz Olechowski, Vivian L. Vignoles, Farida Guemaz, Mahmoud Boussena, Md. Reza-A Rabby, Ayu Okvitawanli, Katarzyna Myślińska-Szarek, Brian W. Haas, Ángel Sánchez-Rodríguez, Olha Vlasenko, Vivian Miu-Chi Lun, Nur Amali Aminnuddin, İdil Işık, Oumar Barry, Márta Fülöp, David Igbokwe, Mladen Adamovic, Ragna Benedikta Garðarsdóttir, Natalia Soboleva, Julien Teyssier, Fumiko Kano Glückstad, Adil Samekin, Charity Akotia, Marwan Al-Zoubi, Laura Andrade, Petra Anić, Rasmata Bakyono-Nabaloum, Arno Baltin, Vlad Costin, Patrick Denoux, Alejandra Domínguez Espinosa, Agustin Espinosa, Vladimer Gamsakhurdia, Magdalena Garvanova, Alin Gavreliuc, Biljana Gjoneska, Eric Raymond Igou, Naved Iqbal, Nuha Iter, Natalia Kascakova, Elmina Kazimzade, Maria Kluzowicz, Agata Kocimska-Bortnowska, Nicole Kronberger, Mary Anne Lauri, Hannah Lee, Arina Malyonova, Fridanna Maricchiolo, Linda Mohammed, Fatma Mokadem, Magdalena Mosanya, Oriana Mosca, Elke Murdock, Martin Nader, Karolina Nowak, Danielle Ochoa, Zoran Pavlović, Iva Poláčková Šolcová, Ewelina Purc, Muhammad Rizwan, Ana Maria Rocha, Heyla Selim, Rosita Sobhie, Moritz Streng, Chien-Ru Sun, Morten Tønnessen, Claudio Torres, Kiều Thị Thanh Trà, Vladimir Turjačanin, Wijnand van Tilburg, Christin-Melanie Vauclair, Jorge Vergara-Morales, Cai Xing, Belkacem Yakhlef, Jae-Won Yang, Eric Kenson Yau, June Chun Yeung, John Zelenski and Kuba Krys. Examining the connection between position-based power and social status across 70 cultures. British Journal of Social Psychology. DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12871
Abstract:
Even in the most egalitarian societies, hierarchies of power and status shape social life. However, power and received status are not synonymous—individuals in positions of power may or may not be accorded the respect corresponding to their role. Using a cooperatively collected dataset from 18,096 participants across 70 cultures, we investigate, through a survey-based correlational design, when perceived position-based power (operationalized as influence and control) of various powerholders is associated with their elevated social status (operationalized as perceived respect and instrumental social value). We document that the positive link between power and status characterizes most cultural regions, except for WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) and Post-Soviet regions. The strength of this association depends on individual and cultural factors. First, the perceived other-orientation of powerholders amplifies the positive link between perceived power and status. The perceived self-orientation of powerholders weakens this relationship. Second, among cultures characterized by low Self-Expression versus Harmony (e.g., South Korea, Taiwan), high Embeddedness (e.g., Senegal), and high Cultural Tightness (e.g., Malaysia), the association between power and status tends to be particularly strong. The results underline the importance of both individual perceptions and societal values in how position-based power relates to social status.
According to Google Scholar (cf. my profile) my research has to date attracted 1339 citations (+22 since February 19th). 215 of these are from 2024 (+22 since February 19th), solidifying its position as my best year ever in terms of number of citations. This is the first time I have been cited 200+ times in a single year.
So far in 2025 I have gathered 12 citations (+3 since February 19th). My h-index remains 20, while my i10-index is now 40 (+2 since February 19th). This means that 40 of my publications have 10 or more citations each.
The book Semiotic agency: Science beyond mechanism, which I co-wrote with Alexei Sharov, stands with 94 citations, including 54 from 2024 and 4 so far from 2025.
Today, during sick leave, I have had a book writing day, with some 700 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 18,5 writing days, including 15 book writing days. By now I have written more than 35.000 words on my book manuscript.
Today, during sick leave, I have had a book writing day, with 1000 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 17,5 writing days, including 14 book writing days.
I am currently on sick leave (which started February February 18th) until March 17th, but plan to write for the next two weeks if my body allows.
I have been notified by the organizers of the 23rd Annual Conference of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS 2025), “Redefining Progress: Achieving Sustainable Well-being for All”, to be held in Luxembourg July 22-25th, that my paper submission "What deep ecologist Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics" has been accepted for oral presentation. My paper will be based on a Norwegian-language article co-written with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen, and was submitted tied to the topic "Disciplinary Approaches to Well-Being, Happiness and Quality-of-life".
On Wednesday March 5th at 7-8 p.m. I will take part in the panel "Drømmen om verdensrommet" (The dream about space) at Vitenfabrikken, Sandnes, as part of the Wonderful Tour 2025 which pre-empts the Wonderful World 2025 festival in Stavanger. I will be joined by Brage W. Johansen and Runa Norheim (chair).
More info (in Norwegian): Wonderful Tour: Drømmen om verdensrommet (LinTicket)
I have been listed as a co-author of the article "The Meaning-or-Affluence Paradox: Wealth Undermines Meaning, Spirituality and Conformity Preserve It", which has been submitted to PNAS. The co-authorship is based on my data gathering in Norway in the Live Better research consortium.
Today I have had what ended up as half a book writing day, with some 550 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 16,5 writing days, including 13 book writing days.
My article "Applied umwelt theory in the context of phenomenological triangulation and descriptive phenomenology" has now been published, as part of the special issue "Umwelt theory".
Reference:
— Tønnessen, Morten 2024. Applied umwelt theory in the context of phenomenological triangulation and descriptive phenomenology. Sign Systems Studies 52 (3/4) (special issue “Umwelt theory”, eds. Riin Magnus and Nelly Mäekivi): 315–343. https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2024.52.3-4.02
According to Google Scholar (cf. my profile) my research has to date attracted 1317 citations (+14 since January 10th). 193 of these are from 2024 (+6 since January 10th), now making 2024 my best year ever in terms of number of citations (beating 2022 with its 191 citations). So far in 2025 I have gathered 9 citations (+9).
My h-index remains 20 and my i10-index 38.
Today I have had half a book writing day, with some 400 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 16 writing days, including 12,5 book writing days.
A brief article titled "Økonomi trenger filosofi" (Economics needs philosophy) by Alessandro Falcetta on Refill, a new University of Stavanger webpage focused on religion, philosophy and outlook on life, features the article "Hva Arne Næss kan lære oss om økonomifagets tverrfaglighet" (What Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics) which I co-wrote with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen and which was published last year.
Excerpt:
Yesterday I attended the OECD High-Level Policy Forum "New Frontiers for Social Policy: Investing in the Future" at the OECD headquarters in Paris. The Policy Forum is followed by a Ministerial Meeting on Friday February 14th.
At the Policy Forum, I got to ask a question towards the end of the fourth panel which had the theme "Climate change and social policy", which can be seen in recording here.
My question read like this:
“I´m Morten Tønnessen, and I am professor of philosophy from the University of Stavanger in Norway. And research by Daniel O´Neill and colleagues has shown that no country at all currently meets the basic welfare needs for its citizens while simultaneously having a material resource use that is environmentally sustainable. So no country is a good enough role model currently. How do we achieve high welfare levels without having too high material resource use in terms of environmental impact?”
My question is heard at 43m35s-44m17s. You can listen to the replies of panelist Kumi Naidoo, former leader of Greenpeace International and Amnesty International at 44m22s-46m22s and Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson, former Minister of Social Affairs and the Labour Market and former Minister of the Environment in Iceland, at 46m25s-46m58s.
Today I have half an article writing day devoted to the democracy-themed article I am co-writing with Svein Tuastad. So far in Spring 2025 I have had 15,5 writing days including 3,5 article writing days.
Yesterday, Monday February 10th, I attended my first meeting in the program council of Wonderful World - den nordiske festivalen for filosofi og vitenskap, which I have now joined. The festival is organized by Kverulantkatedralen (Kåkå) in collaboration with University of Stavanger and Tou Scene. For the two last years I was a member of the editorial board of the festival, but I have now changed role. As a program council member I am more actively involved in developing the festival program.
Today I have had half a book writing day, with some 600 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 15 writing days, including 12 book writing days.
Today I have had a book writing day, with some 700 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 14,5 writing days, including 11,5 book writing days.
Today I attended a board meeting of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies (NASS), which was focused on planning related to our forthcoming conference, NASS XIV, to be held in Tallinn, Estonia June 11-13th. The planning is led by NASS President Lauri Linask.
Today I have had half a book writing day, with some 850 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 13,5 writing days, including 10,5 book writing days.
Today I have had half a book writing day, with some 400 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 13 writing days, including 10 book writing days.
Today I have half an article writing day, with proof-reading done on an article that will soon appear in Sign Systems Studies.
Reference:
— Tønnessen, Morten 2024, in production. Applied umwelt theory in the context of phenomenological triangulation and descriptive phenomenology. Sign Systems Studies 52 (3/4): 315–343. https://doi.org/10.12697/SSS.2024.52.3-4.02
See also an earlier post, from mid-December, where I wrote that I conducted proof-reading of the same article, though that was proof-reading of a different kind - what I did today was the typeset proofs.
So far in Spring 2025 I have had 12,5 writing days including 3 article writing days.
I have just completed registrations in the Current Research Information System in Norway (CRISTIN) for 2024 (cf. my profile in CRISTIN). I registered 39 posts; all-time I have now registered 395 posts (since 2012, i.e. over 13 years, which means on average 30-31 posts per year). This is quite many posts though not quite as many as in 2019, when I registered 44 posts.
The activities I registered included 9 scientific publications, 7 of which should give "publication points" in the Norwegian system. This includes 2 book chapters I wrote by myself, 3 co-written book chapters in the book Mars and the Earthlings, and 2 full-length journal articles, one of which I wrote by myself and 1 I co-authored, as well as a short communication and a co-authored editorial for a special issue I was one of the guest editors of.
Other activities included 4 festival appearances (on Wonderful world and Kåkånomics, both in Stavanger), 2 radio interviews, 3 interviews in Khrono, 5 scientific conference presentations (3 of which online, 2 in-person), 3 guest lectures (2 in Italy, 1 in Slovenia), and 1 co-authored consultative statement written for Norway´s Council for animal ethics.
Today I have had a book writing day, with some 900 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 12 writing days, including 9,5 book writing days. These are also the total number of writing days for January, which has now come to an end.
Altogether in January I logged 8.675 words written, including 8.123 words written on Captured. This is a record in terms of words written on my monograph in one month, and about twice as much as the record in Autumn 2024 with regard to Captured. I am almost on course, given the due date June 1st. Altogether I have now written more than 30.000 words on Captured, which is about 40% of the expected full length of the manuscript.
The book Mars and the Earthlings. A realistic view on Mars exploration and settlement was published earlier this month. I have co-authored three chapters. The official copyright year is 2024. These are my first publications in astrobiology proper.
References:
— Elias Chatzitheodoridis, Philippe Clerc, Akos Kereszturi, Nigel Mason, Erik Persson, Carmen Possnig, Lucie Poulet, Mikko Puumala, Oskari Sivula, John Robert Brucato, Laetitia Cesari, Gisela Detrell, Ondřej Ditrych, Teresa Fornaro, Barbara Gonçalves, Christoph Gross, Maria Hedlund, Mahulena Hofmann, Alexandros Krassakis, Natuschka M. Lee, Kirsi Lehto, Andrea Meneghin, Lena Noack, Patrick Rückert, Nikola Schmidt, Stefan Selke, Mikko Tikkanen, Morten Tønnessen & Kirsten Tracht 2024. Towards Permanent Settlements on Mars (from 1000 to 100,000 People). Pp. 253–339 (chapter 8) in Cyprien Verseux, Muriel Gargaud, Kirsi Lehto & Michel Viso (eds.), Mars and the Earthlings. A realistic view on Mars exploration and settlement (Space and Society). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66881-4_8
— Francois Forget, Perrine Barthomeuf, Oskari Sivula, Caroline Freissinet, Natuschka M. Lee, Nicolas Mangold, Erik Persson & Morten Tønnessen 2024. Mars as a Planet B? Pp. 341–366 (chapter 9) in Cyprien Verseux, Muriel Gargaud, Kirsi Lehto & Michel Viso (eds.), Mars and the Earthlings. A realistic view on Mars exploration and settlement (Space and Society). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66881-4_9
— Mikko Puumala, Oskari Sivula, Jacques Arnould, Klara-Anna Capova, Ondřej Ditrych, David Dunér, Natuschka M. Lee, Tony Milligan, Erik Persson, Nikola Schmidt & Morten Tønnessen 2024. Mars Historical and Ethical Context: Past, Present, and Imagination. Pp. 85–98 (chapter 4) in Cyprien Verseux, Muriel Gargaud, Kirsi Lehto & Michel Viso (eds.), Mars and the Earthlings. A realistic view on Mars exploration and settlement (Space and Society). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66881-4_4
I recently did a peer review for Humanities and Social Sciences Communications.
Today I have had half a book writing day, with some 450 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 10,5 writing days, including 8,5 book writing days.
Today I have had half an article writing day, with some work done relating to a prospective translation of my agent/agency review article, and some 200 words added altogether to my so-called UNDP letter and "Wasted GDP in major economies". I also finished planning article writing days for the rest of the semester (May and June).
Altogether this semester I plan 51 book writing days and 17,5 article writing days, i.e., totally 68,5 writing days (in comparison I planned 47,5 writing days in Spring 2024, and completed about as many, whereas I planned 57 writing days in Spring 2023, and completed 52,5). The main priority this Spring is finishing my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement.
So far this Spring I have had 10,5 writing days including 2,5 article writing days.
In October last Autumn, Norway´s Council for animal ethics, of which I am a member, published the consultative statement "Uttalelse vedrørende oljefondets investeringer i internasjonal matproduksjon" (Statement regarding the Norwegian Petroleum Fund's investments in international food production), a 27 pp. document written by me, Espen Gamlund, Eli Berge Ness and Rudi Ripman Seim, and discussed and approved by the council. I led the working group that was tasked with drafting the statement. The formal name of the Norwegian "oil fund" is Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG). The fund is the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world.
The chronicle "Støtter pensjonspengene våre dårlig dyrevelferd?" (Do our pension funds support poor animal welfare?), which I co-wrote with Knut Egil Bøe, Cecilie Mejdell, Espen Gamlund, Eli Berge Ness and Rudi Ripman Seim, was published in the Norwegian daily newspaper Nationen online January 2nd and in print January 3rd. We are all involved in Norway´s Council for animal ethics, and the chronicle disseminates main observations from the council´s consultative statement on the Norwegian "oil fund", formally called Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), and its investments in food production internationally.
Today I have had half a book writing day, with some 700 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 10 writing days, including 8 book writing days.
Today I have had a book writing day, with some 800 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement, and an interview conducted. So far this Spring I have had 9,5 writing days, including 7,5 book writing days. By now this month I have written more than 6.000 words on Captured.
Today I have given a lecture in environmental psychology as part of University of Stavanger´s master in psychology, on the topic climate crisis and psychology.
Today I have taken part as an external examiner in the oral defence of a master thesis in philosophy at University of Oslo, via Zoom.
Today I have had half an article writing day, devoted to a work meeting relating to an article on democracy I am co-writing, as well as publication info on the book Mars and the Earthlings: A realistic view on exploration and settlement of Mars, and planning of article writing days in the next few months. So far this Spring I have had 8,5 writing days including 2 article writing days.
Today I have had a book writing day, with some 1.000 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 8 writing days, including 6,5 book writing days.
I have been listed as a co-author of the article manuscript "Cultural religiosity moderates the relationship between being in love and subjective well-being" (Mateusz Olechowski et al.), which has been submitted to International Journal of Intercultural Relations, based on my involvement in data gathering in the "Live better" research consortium.
Today I have had a book writing day, with some 900 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. I also assessed how much I have written on each of the 12 chapters by now, and "where" I should focus on writing going forward.
So far this Spring I have had 7 writing days, including 5,5 book writing days. By now in January, I have written more on the book in terms of words written than in any single month in Autumn 2024, but I still have to write considerably more by the end of this month.
Today I have had a book writing day, with some 450 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. So far this Spring I have had 6 writing days, including 4,5 book writing days.
Today I have had half an article writing day, mostly devoted to going through parts of recent "Live better" articles, and registration of some 2024 scientific publications in the Current Research Information System in Norway (CRIStin). Marginally, I also added a reference to my "UNDP Letter". So far this Spring I have had 5 writing days including 1,5 article writing days.
I have been listed as a co-author of the article manuscript "Towards a Fulfilling Life: The Role of Low Negative Societal Emotional Environments in Living the Happy and Meaningful Life", which is about to be submitted, based on my involvement in data gathering in the "Live better" research consortium.
I have just composed and submitted the abstract below to organizers of The 14th conference of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies along with the 15th Annual Lotman Days, which has the theme “Creativity – Complexity – Intelligence“ and is held in Tallinn, Estonia, June 11–13, 2025.
***
"Ecological semiotics, lifeworld perspectives, and sustainability"
Abstract
Morten Tønnessen
Drawing on my recently published encyclopedia chapter “Ecological semiotics” (Tønnessen 2024), in this presentation I outline how ecological complexity is underpinned by sign use and sign systems. Ecological semiotics, or ecosemiotics, can be understood as the study of sign use by organisms in an ecological context. In ecology, semiotic phenomena and sign processes occur at different levels of biological organization, and distinctive kinds of sign use is characteristic of different kinds of interspecies interaction. Ecosemiotic studies help to explain how ecological complexity can be understood in semiotic terms, and how sentient organisms interpret their environment and make choices that are informed by their sign use. I will present the basic theoretical outlook of ecological semiotics with an emphasis on lifeworld perspectives, particularly represented by the Umwelt theory of Jakob von Uexküll (2010). This implies relating ecosemiotics to phenomenology, subjectivity and agency. In a more rudimentary sense, even plants, fungi and microorganisms have agency which can be framed in semiotic terms. In my work, I stress the relevance of a semiotic approach for human ecology and contemporary discussions concerning environmental sustainability. While ecosemiotics is amply informative applied to general ecology, it is especially pertinent in the context of understanding how human agency and sign use affects the environment at large. Ecological semiotics can help us understand how genuinely human sign use stands out from non-human sign use, and the ways in which human sign use is subject to cultural variation. Crucially, a semiotic approach to environmental issues can be informative with regard to understanding how human behaviour and sign use affects non-human lifeworlds by triggering environmental change which is experienced in sign-mediated ways. This positions ecosemiotics to address issues of environmental sustainability.
REFERENCES
Tønnessen, Morten 2024. “Ecological semiotics”. Chapter. Encyclopedia of Ecology (3rd edition) (Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-21964-1.00018-5.
von Uexküll, Jacob 2010. A foray into the worlds of animals and humans with A theory of meaning. O’Neil, J. D. (transl.). Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press.
Today I gave a lecture in the bachelor thesis course (BPSBAC) in the bachelor in psychology at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies, covering selected topics in applied ethics, focused on publication ethics and, secondarily, privacy issues etc. related to involvement of participants in student projects.
I was prompted to update my Google scholar profile, and have revised keywords there plus gone through a number of publications that were not listed on my profile, adding 25 of my texts. 161 texts are now listed on my profile (+25 since December 31st).
My keywords or "areas of interest" now read: biosemiotics, ethics, phenomenology, economics and welfare, astrobiology
Largely due to the updated list of publications, my citation count has increased. My research has now attracted 1.303 citations (+52 since December 31st), including 96 from 2016 (+4), 92 from 2020 (+2), 155 from 2021 (+6), 192 from 2022 (+3), 179 from 2023 (+8) and 187 (+8) from 2024. 811 of the citations are since 2020. My h-index remains 20 and my i10-index 38.
As for my Google Scholar history, on Google´s count I passed 1.000 citations in December 2023, 1.100 citations in April 2024 and 1.200 citations in September 2024. For a detailed history further back (100-1000 citations, achieved 2016-2023), see my 2023 blog post "Google Scholar: 1000 citations; updated Google Scholar history".
Today I have had an article writing day, with some 350 words written, mainly on a revised version of my "UNDP Letter" which is now to be expanded into an full research article. I also did a little work on my article "Wasted GDP in major economies" and a few other article projects. So far this Spring I have had 4,5 writing days including 1 article writing day.
Today I have had a book writing day, #3,5 this Spring, with some 1.100 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement. I have now written more than 25.000 words or about a third of the manuscript.
Today I have had a book writing day, #2,5 this Spring, with some 550 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement.
In 2024, my English language blog Utopian Realism and my Norwegian blog Utopisk Realisme had 6.665 and 4.071 page loads respectively and 10.736 altogether. For both blogs this is the highest for several years - though not an all-time high. Visits to Utopian Realism almost doubled from 2023, whereas visits to Utopisk Realisme increased more than 5-fold (although I don´t post much in that blog anymore). All-time accummulated number of page loads is at about 50.000 for each of the blogs and 104.520 page loads altogether.
The vast majority of the 10.669 unique visitors (6.609 for Utopian Realism and 4.060 for Utopisk Realisme) were First time visitors.
Today I have had half a book writing day, #1,5 this Spring, with some 300 words written on my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement.
Today I have had the first writing day of 2025, a book writing day devoted to my scientific monograph Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement, with some 900 words written.
In 2024 I have logged that I have read some 6172,5 pages of academic texts. This is quite a bit more than the 4546 pages I logged in 2023, and a good step towards earlier highs. Apart from students I supervise at ph.d., MA or BA level, the authors I read the most of included Jakob von Uexkülll, Jason Hickel, Dag Hessen, Philip Goff, Alice Crary and Lori Gruen.
I have just summed up my work year in 2024 based on my log of working hours. 2024 stands out as the shortest work year in living memory (with my work log going back to 2009), with an average work week of 44,7 hours all weeks in the year included. This amounts to 2335,5 work hours, which compares to 138% of an ordinary work year. I worked 180 hours less than in 2023, which was at that point my shortest work year in living memory. This has contributed to a better work/life balance, with more time for karate training and relaxation; since the summer of 2024 I have also taken up daily meditation. And I still got quite a bit done in my working hours - though I got to attend fewer international scientific conferences in person than I´ve been used to, due to budget cuts at University of Stavanger.
Even though it went down from 2023, the share of my work time I spent on research in 2024 was the second-highest in living memory (after 2023). Similarly, the share of my work time I spent on research plus book projects was the second-highest ever, after 2023. Research was the largest category in terms of work hours in 30 weeks, vs. 17 for teaching, supervision and grading etc., and 6 for book projects. Book projects was the category whose share of all work hours increased the most from 2023, in result of my prioritisation of getting Captured: CCS and the fight for the soul of the environmental movement finished by Summer 2025.
