NoSP business meeting; conference dinner

This afternoon I attended the annual business meeting of The Nordic Society for Phenomenology (NoSP) / 
Nordisk Selskab for Fænomenologi here in Tampere
. In a minute I´ll be going to the location for the conference dinner.

Paper "What Characterizes a More-than-Human Phenomenology Suitable for the Anthropocene?" presented at NOSP 2026 in Tampere, Finland

Today I have presented my paper «What Characterizes a More-than-Human Phenomenology Suitable for the Anthropocene?» at the 22nd annual conference of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology (NoSP). The conference, which has the theme “Phenomenology in the Anthropocene”, takes place at Tampere University, Finland, April 22-24th. My paper was given as part of the session «Uexküll’s Environments and Lifeworlds», which was chaired by Erika Ruonakoski and also featured presentations by Katja Tiisala and Niki Hadikoesoemo. Close to 30 people attended.

Paper «What Characterizes a More-than-Human Phenomenology Suitable for the Anthropocene?» scheduled for presentation April 23rd at NoSP 2026 in Tampere

I have been notified by the conference organizers of the Annual conference of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology (NoSP 2026), which is to be held at Tampere University, Finland, April 22–24 2026, that my paper «What Characterizes a More-than-Human Phenomenology Suitable for the Anthropocene?» has been scheduled for oral presentation as part of the session «Uexküll’s Environments and Lifeworlds», which will take place in Linna K109 on Thursday April 23rd at 11:30–13:00.

See also the full program and the abstract book of the conference.

Abstract submitted for NoSP 2026, "Phenomenology in the Anthropocene"

I have just composed and submitted the abstract below to the organisers of the 22nd annual conference of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology (NoSP), "Phenomenology in the Anthropocene", which is to be held at Tampere University, in Tampere, Finland, April 22–24, 2026.

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What characterizes a more-than-human phenomenology suitable for the Anthropocene?   

To address this question, it is pertinent to start out with the observation that the Anthropocene discourse is at its core a discussion about humanity´s impact on the natural environment that emerged from geology. At the same time, the Anthropocene has also over the last several years been vividly discussed from the perspectives of social sciences and the humanities. There is a disconnect between how the Anthropocene has been discussed in a natural science setting, and how it is being discussed in social science and humanities settings, with third-person objective perspectives predominating in the first and subjective perspectives prevailing in the others.

In my view, to be suitable for the circumstances of the Anthropocene, a more-than-human phenomenology must meet the following criteria: 

* It must account for human lifeworlds as well as non-human lifeworlds  

* It must account for human phenomena and non-human phenomena within a consistent and comprehensive theoretical framework 

* It must be capable of explaining how human agency can lead to material changes in the natural world, and how these material changes affect living conditions 

* It must be capable of tackling the problem of human bias which appears e.g. in the form of anthropocentrism and zoocentrism, and which distorts our thinking about nature  

I will present a version of more-than-human phenomenology that draws on biosemiotics and Jakob von Uexküll´s Umwelt theory which I will argue meets the abovementioned criteria. The relevance of such a brand of phenomenology is supported by the fact that Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty both engaged with von Uexküll´s work in their discussions about animal lifeworlds. By outlining the main characteristics of a more-than-human phenomenology suitable for the Anthropocene, I simultaneously address key issues related to the nature, scope, and purpose of ecophenomenology.

"The study of past Umwelten" presented digitally at Fourth World Congress of Environmental History (WCEH4)

Today I have presented my paper "The study of past Umwelten" at The Fourth World Congress of Environmental History (WCEH4), held August 19-23rd at University of Oulu, Finland and online with the theme “Transitions, transformations and transdisciplinarity: Histories beyond history”, specifically in session 2 of the panel “Environmental biography as a methodological challenge”. About 15 people attended altogether.

See also: 

Discipline Filosophiche special issue on Uexküll now published, with "The study of past Umwelten"

Full article in UIS Brage

My two contributions at The Fourth World Congress of Environmental History (WCEH4) scheduled in the conference program

While I do not have funding to attend The Fourth World Congress of Environmental History (WCEH4), “Transitions, transformations and transdisciplinarity: Histories beyond history”, to be held at University of Oulu, Finland August 19-23rd, physically, it turns out I can attend digitally. My two papers/presentations/participations have now been scheduled in the conference program. 

On Monday 19th of August, at 14:15-16:00, I will take part in the panel “Environmental biography as a methodological challenge” with my presentation "The study of past Umwelten".

On Friday 23rd of August I will take part in the roundtable “The Human-Environmental Relationships in Critical Period of Crisis” as a discussant, with my paper “Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century”.

For my abstracts for these two conference papers, see:

Two proposals for WCEH4 (Oulu, Finland, August 2024)

Presentation "The study of past Umwelten" to be given at 4th World Congress of Environmental History

My paper "The study of past Umwelten" has been accepted for presentation at the 4th World Congress of Environmental History, to be held in Oulu, Finland August 19-23rd 2024, as part of the panel “Environmental biography as a methodological challenge”.

Paper "A biosemiotic perspective on the environmental crisis" presented at "(Un)Common Worlds III" conference

Today I have presented my paper “A biosemiotic perspective on the environmental crisis" digitally at the conference "(Un)Common Worlds III – Navigating and Inhabiting Biodiverse Anthropocenes", which is organised at the University of Oulu (Finland) in collaboration with the University of Derby (UK) October 4–6th. Some 20 people attended on-site and online altogether. My presentation was given in the session “Worldlings, onto-epistemologies, and becomings”, chaired by Anna Vladimirova. The session also involved presentations by Wenrui Li and Ombre Tarragnat.

Environmental crisis paper to be presented at Fourth World Congress of Environmental History

I have been notofied that my paper “Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century” has been accepted for presentation at the Fourth World Congress of Environmental History, “Transitions, transformations and transdisciplinarity: Histories beyond history”, to be held at University of Oulu, Finland 19th-23rd of August 2024, as part of the roundtable “The Human-Environmental Relationships in Critical Period of Crisis”.

Two proposals for WCEH4 (Oulu, Finland, August 2024)

I have just submitted two proposals for the Fourth World Congress of Environmental History, to be held August 19-23rd in Oulu, Finland. 

For the panel "Animal Entanglements: new futures in multi-species pasts", I have proposed the abstract "The study of past Umwelten" based on my article by the same name.

Short abstract: I detail how past Umwelten can be studied by applying Jakob von Uexküll’s Umwelt theory and informed by contemporary science, and outline some basic assumptions in studies of past, current and future Umwelten. I also consider methodological issues related to the study of past Umwelten in particular.

Long abstract:

This presentation is based on a published article, "The study of past Umwelten" (Discipline Filosophische XXXIII(1), 2023, special issue “Jakob Von Uexküll. Biological Theory, Subjectivity And Environment”, ed. Vallori Rasini, pp. 227–247). In the article I detail how past Umwelten can be studied by applying Jakob von Uexküll’s Umwelt theory and informed by contemporary science. I argue that the methodological challenges raised by the lack of present organisms available for real-time observations and whole-body physiological studies can be partly overcome by making qualified assumptions drawn from relevant knowledge and reconstructing likely Umwelt relations. As groundwork for such studies, I outline some basic assumptions in studies of past, current and future Umwelten, consider methodological issues related to the study of past Umwelten in particular, and present a few empirical assumptions that are informative with regard to the study of past Umwelten in different historical periods. I also discuss the relevance of such studies for current conservation work, specifically contemporary discussions about de-extinction, and for economics conceived of as a branch of ecology in the fashion of ecological economics.

For the roundtable "The Human-Environmental Relationships in Critical Period of Crisis", I have proposed the abstract "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century" based on my article by the same name.

Short abstract: Two great challenges face humanity in the 21st century: solving an escalating environmental crisis, while also safeguarding and further improving human living conditions. I present an ecosemiotic framework for the study of societal transformations, enveloping socio-ecological developments.

Long abstract:

My contribution will be based on my published article "Anticipating the societal transformation required to solve the environmental crisis in the 21st century" (see https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/SSS.2021.49.1-2.02). Here I present a ecosemiotic perspective on socio-ecological developments historically and with a view to the future. Two great challenges face humanity in the 21st century: solving an escalating environmental crisis, while also safeguarding and further improving human living conditions. An ecosemiotic framework for the study of societal transformations is presented and political and other normative aspects of what I call transformative semiotics are discussed. This envelops socio-cultural and socio-ecological developments framed in terms of umwelt theory and Deep Ecology. In the long run, developments in human ecology as reflected in our changing relations to non-humans are expressed in the umwelt trajectory of humankind. The question of how the environmental crisis can best be solved is therefore tantamount to the question about what direction the human umwelt trajectory should take in this century. I outline different plausible umwelt scenarios for human ecology in the 21st century, focused on business-as-usual, ecomodernist and Deep Ecology scenarios. In a concluding discussion on technology and sustainability, the scenario development eventually includes a distinction between flexible and inflexible development paths.

Paper scheduled for online presentation October 4th at "(Un)Common Worlds III – Navigating and Inhabiting Biodiverse Anthropocenes"

My paper “A biosemiotic perspective on the environmental crisis” has been scheduled for online presentation on Wednesday, October 4th at 4.00-4.30 PM as part of the session “Worldlings, onto-epistemologies, and becomings”, chaired by Anna Vladimirova, at the conference "(Un)Common Worlds III – Navigating and Inhabiting Biodiverse Anthropocenes", which is to be held October 4-6th at University of Oulu (Finland) and online.

See: Conference programme

Abstract for "(Un)Common Worlds III – Navigating and Inhabiting Biodiverse Anthropocenes": "A biosemiotic perspective on the environmental crisis"

I have submitted the abstract below to the organizers of the conference "(Un)Common Worlds III – Navigating and Inhabiting Biodiverse Anthropocenes" (University of Oulu and digitally, October 4-6th 2023).

***

A biosemiotic perspective on the environmental crisis 

Abstract 

Online presentation  

Morten Tønnessen 

***@uis.no  

Professor of philosophy, University of Stavanger, Norway   

ABSTRACT 

In this presentation I will present excerpts of the book chapter “A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition and the environmental crisis” (Tønnessen, forthcoming). The chapter presents a biosemiotic perspective on the basic situation for human beings and that of other organisms, with an emphasis on the subjective experience of sentient animals, and the sign use of all lifeforms. The human condition is portrayed as traditionally conceived, and then revisited in the new context of the current environmental crisis. In the political philosopher Hannah Arendt´s (1906–1975) book The Human Condition (Arendt 1958), she stresses that “[t]he earth is the very quintessence of the human condition”, and yet argues that “the “human artifice of the world separates human existence from all mere animal environment”. In her view, human reality is distinguished from the reality of any other living being on Earth, despite our shared ecological circumstances. A cornerstone of the chapter is an analysis of the materiality of the environmental crisis, and how the massive changes humans have caused in the physical environment can be understood in light of the semiotic agency of humans and animals. Experiential aspects of the environmental crisis are highlighted.   

REFERENCES 

Arendt, Hannah (1958). The Human Condition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 

Tønnessen, Morten, forthcoming. A biosemiotic perspective on the human condition and the environmental crisis. In Lenart Škof, Sashinungla, Sigridur Thorgeirsdottir (eds.), Elemental-Embodied Thinking for a New Era (Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures). Springer.

Collaboration with Ilmar Rootsi concluded

My collaboration with Estonian Ilmar Rootsi (which has been assisted by Nelly Mäekivi) has come to an end, since it today emerged we have a fundamental disagreement about a key source for our planned but now cancelled article on people killed by wolves historically in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Estonia.

This means we will not co-write any article. However, I have offered assistance in making sure a translation is good quality if he wants to present more of his own work in English.

Updated with 3 events: Past academic events

I have updated the link list "Past events (2012-)", to be found in the sidebar on the right, with these three academic events (the list only includes events where I have somehow been involved):

• Theresearch seminar "Biosemiotics and study of culture" (Tartu, Estonia,July 16, 2012)
• 27th International Summer School for Semiotic and Structural Studies (2012 - June8-12, Imatra, Finland)
• The symposium “Nordic Semiotic Paradigms – NASS 25 years: Where do Cognitive, Bio-and Existential Semiotics Meet?” (Imatra, Finland, June 9, 2012)
• http://www.isisemiotics.fi/summer-school-2012.html

The symposium (3) was part of the summer school (2).

Animal agency presentation accepted

I have just been informed that the panel proposed by my collaborator Håkon Stokland for the sixth conference of the European Society for Environmental History, to be arranged in Turku, Finland, June 28th to July 2nd 2011, has been accepted by the scientific committee. The title of the panel session has been changed from "Animal agency and history - three different approaches to Scandinavian wolves" to "Animal agency and environmental history - three different approaches to Nordic wolves", and the committee has added a fourth presenter, a Ms. Heta Lähdesmäki.

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Below is an overview of the four papers now included in the panel (Dr. Frank Zelko will be the session chair).

"Wolf history: Agents in hiding"

PhD candidate Morten Tønnessen

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"Influencing military strategy, developing chemistry, changing politics: The role of the wolf in 1800-century Sweden"

Dr. Karin Dirke

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"Animal agency and the wolf that saved an entire population"

PhD candidate Håkon Stokland

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"Controlling wolves: Attitudes towards wolves in Finland in the 1990s"

Ms. Heta Lähdesmäki

Summer Symposium on Sustainable Systems

Unfortunately I did not get the chance to submit an abstract to the Summer Symposium on Sustainable Systems (4S), an interdisciplinary symposium for doctural students and post-doctoral researchers (Sannäs, Finland, June 14-17, 2010).

The aim of the symposium is to bring together motivated researchers and high level keynote speakers with an interest in interdisciplinary systemic approaches to complex issues under the theme of closed-loop sustainable material systems.

4S theme this year:

Harmonizing Policy, Technology, Product Design and Resource Management