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

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

I have been notified by the conference organizers that my paper "A biosemiotic perspective on the environmental crisis" has been accepted for presentation at the conference (Un)Common Worlds III Human-Animal Studies Conference (to be held at University of Oulu, University and Derby and online October 4-6th).

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.