Field work summary on wolves soon online

Today I have entered University of Stavanger´s web publishing tool, CorePublish, for the first time for a couple of years or so, and uploaded a popular science summary of field work (in Norwegian) carried out as part of the research project "Animals in changing environments" (to Norwegian-version website only), specifically as part of the subproject "Representations (both Problematic and Romanticizing) of Large Mammals, especially Wolves".

See also:

EMP151 field work summary composed and distributed (June 2017)

Project extension for wolf study

Project end for the research (sub)project "Representations both Problematic and Romanticizing of Large Mammals especially Wolves" has been extended to June 30th 2019. The remaining two articles will likely only be completed next Spring.

Back from Amazonas; minor surgery

Yesterday I got back home from my field trip to the Amazonas. Today I underwent minor surgery in relation to a fistula I have amassed (I have Crohns), with insertion of a seton stitch. I am intending to do without any sick leave, except rest today and this weekend.

Four days in the Amazonas

For the last few days I have been at Pousada Uakari at the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in the Amazonas (in the municipality of Alvarães). I have attended a number of guided tours, mostly to observe wildlife, but also to visit the indigenous community São José, and heard two popular science lectures. The guides were either indigenous, from one of the communities in the area, or a residing naturalist.

3 hours of MEM teaching

Today I taught for 3 hours for the MFAMILY MUNDUS class - introduction to field work at Stavanger City Hall next week. Two hours of introduction into the Norwegian political system, followed by an hour of student presentations based on preliminary research on Norwegian parties and social policies.

Field visit info and planning

Today I met with the MFAMILY class in the "Welfare state and welfare policy" course to inform the students about arrangements for a forthcoming field visit to Stavanger City Hall in May.

Planning of two wolf-themed articles

Today I took part in a Skype call with a colleague (should have been two) to plan for two belated wolf-themed articles we are co-writing based on video material from Wolf Park and our own field work with video-recorded interviews in Norway.

EMP151 field work summary composed and distributed

I have earlier this Spring composed a 7 pp. popular science summary of field work conducted in Norway Spring 2015 as part of the research project "Animals in changing environments: Cultural mediation and semiotic analysis". Today I distributed it via email to interviewees. The video-recorded interviews were about wolves and related animals.

3 hours of teaching

Today I taught for 3 hours - 2 hours lecture and 1 hour teacher-assisted group work - in Welfare state and welfare policy (MEM110). This was the introduction to our field visit at Stavanger municipality this week, including an introduction to the Norwegian political system.

Dissemination article published by ScienceNordic.com in 2016

The research dissemination article "Researchers: Facts alone are not enough in the debate about wolves", by Benedicte Pentz, appeared on ScienceNordic.com on May 7th 2016. The article features an interview with me on field work carried out in Spring 2015. Similar articles have appeared on uis.no, phys.org and forskning.no.

Popular science summary of field work findings to appear late autumn

Since the research project "Animals in changing environments: Cultural mediation and semiotic analysis" has been prolonged from April 30th to December 31st, the popular scientific summary of our field work including interviews will only be composed and made public late this autumn (not this Spring as originally planned). Today I communicated this fact to the interviewees.

Visit to Prague Zoo

A few days ago, on July 6th, I visited Prague zoo, for the first time, along with some colleagues (including biosemioticians, and wolf socializers). We observed a couple of examples of stereotypical behavior (in a hyena, and an elephant), but the wolves appeared very relaxed.

"Synchronicity in human perception of animals" paper scheduled for presentation June 23rd

My paper "Synchronicity in human perception of animals" has been scheduled for presentation at IVSA 2016 Thursday, June 23rd at 09.30-10.00, in Parallel session 4A, "Nature, perception and responsiveness", to be chaired by Liz Barber, University of Queenslands, Australia.

NSD response

Today I have received response to my brief status report from NSD - Norwegian Centre for Research Data in relation to our field work involving 13 interviews last year, acknowledging the prolongation of the subproject which I reported.

See also:

NSD status report on research data

”Synchronicity in human perception of animals” paper presented at NoSP2016

Today I have attended the session at NoSp 2016 “Phenomenological Approaches to the Anthropological Difference”, and, herein, presented my paper ”Synchronicity in human perception of animals”. Some 15 people were present.

Abstract for IVSA 2016: "Synchronicity in human perception of animals"

I have just submitted the abstract below to the organizers of IVSA (The International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA) 2016 (Lillehammer, Norway, June 22-24).

Synchronicity in human perception of animals

By Morten Tønnessen, Associate professor of philosophy, University of Stavanger

This paper presents findings from 13 video-recorded interviews conducted Spring 2015 in Norway focused on the respondents´ perception of wolves and related animals which are often perceived to be in conflict with wolves. The interviews were conducted in the rural municipalities Kautokeino (Finnmark county) and Rendalen (Hedmark), and the urban municipalities Stavanger (Rogaland) and Kristiansand (Vest-Agder). The respondents were shown images, video-clips and audio featuring wolves, elk, dogs, sheep, reindeer and people, and prompted to explain what they saw and/or heard. In the course of these verbal explanations, accompanied by telling body language, it becomes clear how the respondents sought e.g. to determine the species of featured animals, or understand the situation on display.

I will demonstrate different ways in which human perception of animals is synchronized, and show examples involving simultaneous display of multiple screens and video-recordings. A study of synchronicity in human perception of animals can reveal patterns and tendencies in such perception, and inform us about the respondents´ identity, attitudes and self-understanding. By making use of parameters including geography, demography, occupation and hobbies, this study sheds light on the ways in which human self-understanding is always based in part on our ideas about animals.

Acknowledgements: This work has been carried out thanks to the support of the research project Animals in Changing Environments: Cultural Mediation and Semiotic Analysis (EEA Norway Grants/Norway Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 under project contract no. EMP151). Paul Thibault took part in designing and conducting the interviews; Laura Kiiroja contributed by cataloguing the video-recorded interviews.

Reykjavik paper on Norwegian wolf field work accepted

Today I´ve been informed that our panel “Phenomenological Approaches to the Anthropological Difference”, convened by Cristian Ciocan, has been accepted. This implies that my paper "Synchronicity in human perception of animals" has been accepted for presentation at the 14th annual conference of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology: “Phenomenology and Beyond” (Reykjavik, Iceland 21‐23 April, 2016).

See also:

Abstract for NoSP 2016: "Synchronicity in human perception of animals"

Abstract for NoSP 2016: "Synchronicity in human perception of animals"

In the end of November, I composed the abstract below, for Phenomenology and beyond: 14th annual conference of the Nordic Society for Phenomenology, to be held at University of Iceland, Reykjavík,  21–23 April 2015.

***

Synchronicity in human perception of animals

Abstract

By Morten Tønnessen, Associate professor of philosophy, University of Stavanger, Norway

Part of the panel "Phenomenological Approaches to the Anthropological Difference”, convened by Cristian Ciocan

This paper presents findings from 13 video-recorded interviews conducted Spring 2015 in Norway focused on the respondents´ perception of wolves and related animals which are often perceived to be in conflict with wolves. The interviews were conducted in the rural municipalities Kautokeino (Finnmark county) and Rendalen (Hedmark county), and the urban municipalities Stavanger (Rogaland county) and Kristiansand (Vest-Agder county). In the interviews, the respondents were shown images, video-clips and audio featuring wolves, elk, dogs, sheep, reindeer and people, and prompted to explain what they saw and/or heard. In the course of these verbal explanations, accompanied by telling body language, it becomes clear how the respondents sought to interpret the media material and e.g. determine the species of featured animals, or understand the situation on display.

I will demonstrate different ways in which human perception of animals is synchronized, and show examples involving simultaneous display of multiple screens and video-recordings. A study of synchronicity in human perception of animals can reveal patterns and tendencies in such perception, and inform us about the respondents´ identity, attitudes and self-understanding. By making use of parameters including geography, demography (gender, age etc.), occupation and hobbies, this study sheds light on the ways in which human self-understanding is always based in part on our ideas about, and perception of, animals.

Acknowledgements: This work has been carried out thanks to the support of the research project Animals in Changing Environments: Cultural Mediation and Semiotic Analysis (EEA Norway Grants/Norway Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 under project contract no. EMP151). Paul Thibault took part in designing and conducting the interviews; Laura Kiiroja contributed by cataloguing the video-recorded interviews.

Revision of "Human Perceptions of Animals: A Multimodal Event Analysis of Interview Data" finished

I have just finished, in collaboration with Paul J. Thibault, the chapter "Human Perceptions of Animals: A Multimodal Event Analysis of Interview Data", in its revised version (see some related posts). At ca. 10.000 words and with several images, the chapter is one of the longest I´ve contributed to.

Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Interview Design
3. Theory
4. Analysis of Data
5. Discussion

Two final field work interviews conducted

Today and yesterday Paul Thibault and I have conducted the final two interviews in the subproject "Representations (both Problematic and Romanticizing) of Large Mammals, especially Wolves" in the Estonian-Norwegian research project "Animals in changing environments: Cultural mediation and semiotic analysis", in Stavanger, at University of Stavanger. This brings the total number of interviews up to 13. We now have some 10 hours of video recordings (plus footage from a second camera).