Ad for public lecture on global species

This ad is in Stavanger Aftenblad today, ahead of my public lecture tomorrow at Museum of Archeology.

Nature not to publish article on "global species"

After submitting a presubmission enquiry a few days back, today I was informed by an editor of Nature that they will not publish an article by me on the notion of "global species". "We do not doubt the interest of your study to others working in this and related areas of research", the reply went, but "after consideration, we are not persuaded that your findings represent a sufficiently outstanding scientific advance to justify publication in Nature."

See previous posts mentioning the keyword "global species" and cf. my 2010 article "The global species" (a preview is available via Questia).

Reference to two of my publications in Larsen's chapter on anthropocentrism in food production

Two of my academic publications are referred to in Guri Larsen's book chapter on anthropocentrism in food production in the recently published Norwegian Human-Animal Studies anthology. Reference to Guri's article:

Larsen, Guri 2013. Matens urettferdighet: Matproduksjonens antroposentriske system [Food’s injustice: The anthropocentric system of food production]. In: Ragnhild Sollund, Morten Tønnessen and Guri Larsen (eds), Hvem er villest i landet her: Råskap mot dyr og natur i antropocen, menneskets tidsalder [Who is wildest in this country here? Brutality towards animals and nature in the Anthropocene, the age of Man]. Oslo: Spartacus Forlag/Scandinavian Academic Press, 185-203.

The reference is on page 186, and is to my chapter in the same book "Menneskeveldet" [The human empire] plus to my 2010 article "The global species" (New formations 69: 98-110). Excerpt (my translation):

Within an interdisciplinary field of research, human ecology, nature and culture is sought synthesised in the study of humans' collective interaction with nature. Here, a humane ecosystem is considered as a demographic answer to the need to restore a functioning relation to nature (Tønnessen 2010, see also Tønnessen's chapter).

Lecture at University of Oslo in October

I have been invited by professor in criminology Guri Larsen to give a lecture this autumn as part of her seminar in "økologisk-global kriminologi" (eco-global criminology). We have scheduled that I will talk October 19th. I will probably choose the global species as my topic.

Perspective articles?

I have been encouraged to present my take on the future of growth to a high-impact journal, and have decided to attempt to get a short perspective article published in Science. I will further attempt to get a perspective article on my notion of 'global species' published in Nature. Here, I would include a crucial precisation, or moderation, of my original claim, partly due to the intervention of my supervisor Kalevi Kull.

See also:
Growth, global species articles offered by Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica on The global species

Encyclopædia Britannica on The global species

I have previously mentioned that Encyclopædia Britannica offers my two articles The Statistician's Guide to Utopia: The Future of Growth (published in TRAMES) and The Global Species (published in New Formations) as additional online content for subscribers. Here's how Encyclopædia Britannica presents the latter of these in summary:

The article explores the historical process of globalisation by assessing the planet's colonisation by the proliferation of species. A established global "colonial organism" means the installation of an ecological empire, organized with Homo Sapiens as the ruling class with crop species, pets, and livestock enjoying positions of privilege. The landscape has been altered to accommodate the proliferation of different species, making the geographical spread of life forms much easier and on a global scale.

The Global Species published

Yesterday I received my copy of new formations no. 69, where my article "The Global Species" appears (pp98-110). Guest editor of the Special Issue 'Imperial Ecologies', Ashley Dawson, summarizes my article in his "Introduction: New Enclosures" (freely available online). Excerpts (p20):

Morten Tønnessen’s essay focuses on a substance even more ubiquitous than oil, one that has perhaps also been more essential to the reproduction of our species: non-human animals. Approaching analysis of human-affiliated life forms from the perspective of the long durée and developing the concept of ecosemiotics, Tønnessen argues that the historical process of globalisation can perhaps be best understood through analysis of the planet’s colonisation not simply by human beings but also by the accompanying proliferation of species we favour. Alongside this process of planetary diffusion, human beings have introduced a schism in nature, Tønnessen suggests, one that divides biological life into favoured and non-favoured species. Life and death have been apportioned around the planet for centuries according to this anthropocentric matrix of biological utility. The result is a global colonial organism or ecological empire, with human beings at the apex of a massive pyramid of fauna and flora that we privilege because of their utility to our species’ expanded reproduction. While acknowledging the primary role played by Europe and the United States in diffusing a particularly unsustainable model of development around the world over the last five hundred years, Tønnessen explores the provocative question of whether there may be something ecologically imperialistic in our behaviour as a species over a much longer time span than that of Euro-American-dominated modernity. Drawing unnerving conclusions from this historical retrospect, Tønnessen argues that the serried ecological crises we currently confront are linked inextricably to the forms of biopower we exercise not simply over human populations but over the mammoth global pyramid of flesh and grain upon which we depend.

Other contributors: Crystal Bartolovich, George Caffentzis, Ashley Dawson, Ben Dibbley, Jeremy Gilbert, Peter Hitchcock, Leerom Medovoi, Brett Neilsen, Rob Nixon, Sian Sullivan, Nicholas Thoburn, Tony Venezia.

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"The Global Species" is also available for purchase in PDF format:

IncentaConnect $26,80 + tax

DocStoc $7.95

Bibliographical data for The global species

My article The global species (abstract here) is nearing publication in the British journal New Formations. I have just done proof reading. The article will appear in no. 69, pp98-110.

Abstract for "The global species"

The publication of my article "The global species" in Britain's New formations is approaching, and in the process I have just written an abstract for it.

AbstractThe phenomenon of colonialism is in this article treated with reference to our stepwise establishment throughout history of something akin to a global colonial organism. The concept of ‘global species’, which is introduced for the first time, applies not only to the human species but furthermore to several of our affiliated species. Due to disparity in ecological and climatic conditions, global presence may never before have been a typical characteristic of dominating species – but it is today. Humankind’s successful proliferation and dispersal has facilitated the global spread of everything from livestock and crop species to pets and certain bugs, at the expense of wildlife. Though humankind is in this article for the most part taken to be one entity, the author does in no way claim that all cultures are the same, or that we are destined to go on in the same way as we have started out. The word “we”, however, is empathised – as a prerequisite for a truly global awareness and sense of responsibility. What this article suggests, is simply that the global colonial organism we have established is the proper real-life framework for any discussion of the ecological performance of specific cultures and societies.

KeywordsBiosemiotics, Capitalism, Crop species, Global colonial organism, Global culture, Global species, Globalisation, Land use, Livestock, Pets

Global species revisited

The second last night (literally) I finished revising my article "The global species" for the journal New formations. Three pages were added, not least addressing global disparities.

The global species

I have at long last (due to some technical email confusion, apparently) received the response from New formations to my contributed article The global species. They are positive, apart from to my omittance of cultural distinctions (in the article I treat humankind as a global culture, in very broad strokes).

I will revise it next week.

The Global Species

I have just finished my journal article 'The Global Species', for New formations.

In this article I will attempt to demonstrate that the historical process of globalization - in the long term - can be outlined in terms of the expanding and eventually practically global range (occurrence) not only of our own species, but of several of our affiliated species as well.

Contents:
The Ecosemiotics of Globalisation
The Beginnings of Globalisation
The Ecology of Capitalism
The Politics of Biosemiotics