Article "What Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics" published; mention in editorial

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 have co-written with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen, was published in Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift today. 

Reference:

Tønnessen, Morten, Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen 2024. Hva Arne Næss kan lære oss om økonomifagets tverrfaglighet (What Arne Næss can teach us about the interdisciplinary nature of economics). Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift 59(1-2), 21–36.

The article is in Norwegian but has an English abstract:

Arne Næss criticized modern economics for its lack of philosophical awareness and interdisciplinarity, suggesting that economists should draw inspiration from the field’s origins in philosophy. Næss’ views on how the economy should be organized and studied are significant, particularly in light of his differentiation between a deep and shallow understanding of environmental issues. In this article, we will review Næss’ critique of economics as an academic discipline and discuss his proposals for transforming our approach to economics, considering both its historical development and the ongoing environmental crisis. Specifically, we will emphasize the importance of philosophy, ecology, and social anthropology as foundational elements for economics. Our primary reference is the Norwegian-language chapter “New tasks for political economy” from Næss’ major work in environmental philosophy, Ecology, Community and Lifestyle. In the article, we deal with Næss’ view on the use of models and the relationship between theory and reality, the fundamental connection between ecology and the economy, what role normative systems thinking can play for economics, and how economics can be informed by economic anthropology. In conclusion, we will reflect on the implications of our analysis of Arne Næss’ economic viewpoints for the future of economics.

Our article is mentioned in the editorial of the same issue, written by Cathrine Victoria Felix and Heine Alexander Holmen.

Excerpts:

Å bedrive akademisk filosofi innebærer å utforske og analysere grunnleggende spørsmål på en systematisk og metodisk måte. Dette inkluderer alt fra å undersøke ulike filosofiske tradisjoner, argumenter og perspektiver, til å utvikle egne teorier og konsepter. Med andre ord: akademisk filosofi er et mangfoldig felt med et bredt spekter av metoder. Vi håper dette nummeret av Norsk filosofisk tidsskrift presenterer dette mangfoldet på en god måte. Nummeret inneholder tre fagartikler som tar for seg så ulike temaer som examen philosophicum, prostitusjon og økonomifaget.

...

Arne Næss kan beskrives som en titan innen norsk filosofi. I artikkelen «Hva Arne Næss kan lære oss om økonomifagets tverrfaglighet» skriver Morten Tønnessen, Jan Karlstrøm og Thomas Hylland Eriksen om Næss’ kritikk av det moderne økonomifaget. I lys av Næss’ kritikk argumenterer forfatterne for viktigheten av å inkludere filosofi, økologi og sosialantropologi som grunnlag for studiet av økonomi. De diskuterer fremtidens økonomifag og reiser spørsmål om modellbruk, forholdet mellom teori og virkelighet og normativ systemtenkning.

#30

Today I have finished the revised version of our article "Hva Arne Næss kan lære oss om økonomifagets tverrfaglighet", which I co-write with Jan Karlstrøm and Thomas Hylland Eriksen and which will be resubmitted to Norsk Filosofisk Tidsskrift soon. In the process I added some 400 words net to the article concerning my text contributions, and also made substantial deletions. So far this Spring I have had 30 writing days.

Paper presented; 2 sessions chaired at ISQOLS 2022

Today I have given my presentation "The true value of „doing well“ economically" in session 4.1, "Promoting Well-Being: Public Policy and Development", at the 2022 ISQOLS conference. Around 20 people attended physically or online.

I also chaired the session, which included 2 in-person and 3 virtual presentations. After this I was impromptu asked to chair the next session as well, session 5.1, "Social Relations and Well-Being", including another 2 in-person and 3 virtual presentations. Altogether this means I chaired 10 presentations.

ISQOLS 2022 paper presentation rescheduled for August 5th

My paper presentation "The true value of „doing well“ economically", which was initially scheduled for oral presentation at ISQOLS 2022 (the annual conference of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, to be held in Burlington, Vermont, USA, August 3-6th) on Saturday August 6th, has now been rescheduled to Friday August 5th in Session 4.1, "Promoting Well-Being: Public Policy and Development", which takes place 9-00-10:30 AM.

See also the final conference program.

ISQOLS 2022 presentation scheduled for August 6th

I have just received the conference program of ISQOLS 2022 (the annual conference of the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies), to be held in Burlington, Vermont, USA, August 3-6th. My paper "The true value of „doing well“ economically" has been scheduled for oral presentation in session 8.5, "Quality of Life and Environment", which will take place Saturday August 6th at 13.15-14.45.

Talk on future of growth given in Kristiansand

Yesterday I gave a talk on "Grønn økonomi - Visjoner og muligheter" [Green economics - Visions and possibilities] at a seminar/theme night organised by The Green Party in Kristiansand, Norway, along with André Tribbensee. Some 16 people were present.

Fun fact

Google "mainstream economics angus maddison" and you will find my paper 'THE STATISTICIAN'S GUIDE TO UTOPIA: THE FUTURE OF GROWTH' (kudos to Academia.edu).

Abstract: "Introducing semiotic economy"

Introducing semiotic economy

Morten Tønnessen

Abstract submitted for the special theme session Consumption as Signification (chaired by Kristian Bankov), part of The 31st Annual Meeting of the Semiotic Society of Finland, June 9–10

Associate professor at Department of Health Studies, University of Stavanger

Researcher in the grant Dynamical Zoosemiotics and Animal Representations (Department of Semiotics, University of Tartu)

The ten steps to a semiotics of being detailed in Tønnessen 2010 (and said to be “pertinent to various sub-fields at the conjunction of semiotics of nature […] and semiotics of culture […]”) conclude with the following four points:

7) An imperative task in our contemporary world of faltering biological diversity is that of Umwelt mapping, i.e. a mapping of ontological niches.

8) The ecological crisis is an ontological crisis with historical roots in humankind’s domestication of animals and plants, which can be taken as archetypical for our attempted planet-scale taming of the wild.

9) The process of globalization is expressed by correlated trends ofdepletion of semiotic diversity and semiotic diversification.

10) Semiotic economy is a field which task it is to map the human ontological niche insofar as its semiotic relations are of an economic nature.

The ontological niche of point 7 was first introduced in Tønnessen 2003: 288 as “the set of contrapuntal relations that [a being] takes part in at a given point of natural history”. The notion is one of several profitable specifications of Uexküll’s Umwelt concept. In plain language, the ontological niche represents what a being does in fact do (relate to), rather than the interpretative challenges it encounters in its semiotic niche (Hoffmeyer). Semiotic economy, then, traces the actual behavior of the human species in Umwelt (i.e., ecological) terms, via a mapping of the impact that human behavior has directly and indirectly as manifested in the Umwelten of humans and notably of other living beings. This prospective field of study – involving a more qualitative approach to economics (and a more phenomenological approach, in a wide, Uexküllian sense) – is thus fitted for empirical studies. From this theoretical vantage point, (human) consumption can be conceived of in terms of signification not only from a human point of view but also from an animal point of view.

References

Tønnessen, Morten 2003. Umwelt ethics. Sign Systems Studies, 31.1: 281-299.

— 2010. Steps to a semiotics of being. Biosemiotics 3.3: 375-392.

Two papers accepted for presentation at Imatra Summer School

Last week I was notified that my two abstracts for the International Semiotics Institute's Summer School (2012 - June 8-12, Imatra, Finland) have been accepted by the organisers. These are (session for which they were submitted in parenthesis):

* "Existential universals: A bridge between biosemiotics and existential semiotics" ("Nordic Semiotic Paradigns - NASS 25 years: Where do Cognitive, Bio- and Existential Semiotics Meet?", chaired by Luis Emilio Bruni)

* "Introducing semiotic economy" (special theme session Consumption as Signification, chaired by Kristian Bankov)

I will publish these two abstracts here in Utopian Realism as separate posts.

Editorial presentation of "Mapping human impact"

Here's the editorial mention of my chapter "Mapping human impact - expanding horizons: Interdisciplinary integration" (cf. previous post), which is to be found on p. 15 in Tiina Peil's Introduction (pp. 11-17):

The Umwelt approach is further examined by Morten Tønnessen who continues with a phenomenological reading of Jakob Uexküll's work. He attempts to create means to qualify quantitative data and discuss the merits and shortcomings of two methodologies - the ecological footprint and the ontological niche - in investigating (mapping) the human role in nature.

Tartu: Alf Holmborg lecture, and more (semiotic economy)

Today I attended Alf Hornborg's lecture at the Department of semiotics in Tartu "Submitting to Objects: Fetishism, Dissociation, and the Cultural Foundations of Capitalism". Previously I have heard him present at an environmental history conference (the First World Congress of Environmental History, Copenhagen, 2009), but this time around I have also gotten to meet him in person (yesterday a group of us were out for dinner). I consider him, like Almo Farina, a fellow practioner of 'semiotic economy', and have suggested he checks out Farina's work.

I have a lot to learn from Alf Hornborg's work, and I am eager to read more by him from the crossroads ecosemiotics / ecological economics / world-systems theory. As became clear during today's lecture, however, I have some reservations with regard to how accurate his depiction of the global economy is (and how far we can get in understanding the current and future economy by basing our theorizing on models derived from 19th century examples).

A note on the Schumacher college MA in ecological economics

Schumacher College (in cooperation with the University of Plymouth) is launching a MA in ecological economics. The MA program is called "Economics for Transition - Achieving low carbon, high well-being, resilient economies."

I think it's great the MA is being introduced, but a bit puzzled that the word "growth" only appear once, towards the very end of the website presenting the MA.

What you will learn
...

Use sources of knowledge and evidence to powerfully critique the dominant economic growth model

Surely economic growth is risky to describe in critical terms, given how many offer simplistic, not very insightful critique - but hardly mentioning the phenomenon at all is not very promising either.

Schumacher College also offers a MSc in Holistic Science.

Mapping human impact delivered

The second last night I further finished my article "Mapping human impact - Expanding horizons: Interdisciplinary integration" (17pp) where, for one thing, I criticise the ecological footprint concept.

/

The article will partake in proceedings from the second CECT autumn conference, and is in part based on my presentation there. Proceedings will likely appear in Geografiska annalar, published by the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography.

Contents:

Ecological footprint vs. ontological niche

Interpreting numerical data qualitatively

Development of ontological maps

RePEc; MPRA

I have registered at the RePEc author service, which ties economists in to its bibliographical database. All RePEc material (articles, books, work papers etc.) is freely available - not just to registered users.

In the same process, I have registered the University of Tartu Faculty of Philosophy at RePEc - and I am making The statistician's guide to Utopia I: The future of growth available through the Munich Personal RePEc Archive (MPRA) (and in effect EconPapers).