Havana conference om comparative welfare and people`s experience of the welfare system cancelled

The conference “Comparative Welfare: Cuban and Nordic Welfare: People`s experience of the welfare system”, which was to be held in Havana, Cuba, November 27th to December 1st, has been cancelled by the University of Havana. I was invited to speak as a keynote speaker.

To be keynote speaker at Tartu conference on Umwelt analysis

I will be a keynote speaker at the conference “Contemporary Umwelt Analysis: Applications for Culture and Ecological Relations”, which will be held in Tartu, Estonia, 18th-19th of April, 2023, at the University of Tartu, Estonia, along with Kalevi Kull (University of Tartu) and Carsten Herrmann-Pillath (University of Erfurt, Germany). 

Abstracts are due January 31st 2023. For more info, see the conference webpage.

Mentioned in keynote at world congress in Thessaloniki

Yesterday Kobus Marais kindly referred to our book Semiotic Agency: Science beyond mechanism in his keynote talk at the 15th world congress of semiotics (Thessaloniki, August 30th–September 3rd) “The Thermodynamics of Semiosis”, specifically making use of a figure on bodily agency over different levels of biological organization.

Tartu keynote held

Today I gave the keynote, or plenary talk, "Current human ecology in light of Umwelt theory", at the conference "Semiotics of hybrid natures - anthropogenic ecosystems, multi modalities, transformed umwelts" (University of Tartu 8-10 November). Some 30-40 people were present.

Tartu keynote om Umwelt theory/human ecology scheduled for November 9th

My keynote speech at the conference “Semiotics of hybrid natures: Anthropogenic ecosystems, multimodalities, transformed umwelts” (Tartu, Estonia November 8-10th 2018), "Current Human Ecology in Light of Umwelt Theory", has been scheduled for presentation Friday November 9th at 12.30-14.00.

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Revised abstract for "Semiotics of hybrid natures" keynote

Below is my revised abstract for the forthcoming conference "Semiotics of hybrid natures: Anthropogenic ecosystems, multi modalities, transformed umwelten" (Tartu November 8-10th), where I will give a keynote lecture.

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Current human ecology in light of Umwelt theory

Morten Tønnessen

Associate professor of philosophy, University of Stavanger

Umwelt theory is an expression of von Uexküll´s subjective biologyand as such it is usually applied in analysis of individual animals. However, Umwelt theory is fundamentally relational, and therefore also suitable for analysis of more complex wholes. Furthermore, depending on the level of generalization, Umwelt theory is also suitable for analysis of behavioral and experiential dynamics at a group level. A significant methodological advantage of Umwelt theory is that it is applicable with regard to both human and non-human experience and action within one of the same framework.

In our age, which many have come to call «the Anthropocene», the human species dominates many ecosystems, and has established a manifold of tightly controlled production systems and resource streams involving or affecting living creatures in both in-door and outdoor environments. In the Anthropocene discourse, the debate rages as to what level of human control is appropriate. 

Big picture-notions and planetary perspectives are important, but so is the subjective animal perspective that von Uexküll emphasized. To what extent can these be combined? In this presentation, I will explore to what extent ecosemiotics can be applied in analysis of global human ecology. I will do this by portraying the human species as a global speciesthat gives rise to multiple ecologies built around our presence. I will further discuss climate change in its relation to changing patterns of biodiversity and animal behavior.

One can hardly overestimate the effect the human species has even on wildlife, both wittingly and unwittingly. Towards many species, we behave like an unsustainable super-predator, and we reserve a lot of land for our affiliated species. We furthermore affect the experience and behaviour of animals by causing environmental changes in land, water and air, by influencing prey densities and the occurrence of natural enemies, etc.

In the course of this presentation, I will apply notions such as Umwelt transition, Umwelt trajectory, Umwelt aggregate, andUmwelt alignment, in an attempt to outline some of the most important characteristics of contemporary human ecology. To understand our changing relations to living beings and nature, we must be aware of the different forms relations can take on e.g. for wild, liminal and domesticated animals.

To avoid getting lost in the semiosphere, I will anchor some of my analysis in a case study of human–animal relations in Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve in the Central Amazonas. This is a seasonal floodplain forest area surrounded by rivers in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. I will investigate human–human and human–animal interaction in the reserve, with a main focus on indigenous communities and their relations to two primate species, namely the red howler monkey (Alouatta seniculus) and the black-headed squirrel monkey (Saimiri vanzolinii).

BIONOTE

Morten Tønnessen (born 1976) is Associate professor of philosophy at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies. He has worked with Umwelt theory since his Master degree (University of Oslo 2002), and conducted his doctoral studies at University of Tartu (2011). Tønnessen has published extensively within biosemiotics and human-animal studies, and is currently President of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies and Main Editor-in-Chief of Biosemiotics. Academic (b)log: http://UtopianRealism.blogspot.com.

Abstract for "Semiotics of hybrid natures" conference: Current human ecology in light of Umwelt theory

Below is my abstract and bionote for the "Semiotics of hybrid natures" conference to be held in Tartu, Estonia, November 8-10th, where I am one of three keynote speakers.

***

Current human ecology in light of Umwelt theory

Morten Tønnessen

Associate professor of philosophy, University of Stavanger

Umwelt theory is an expression of von Uexküll´s subjective biology and as such it is usually applied in analysis of individual animals. However, Umwelt theory is fundamentally relational, and therefore also suitable for analysis of more complex wholes. Furthermore, depending on the level of generalization, Umwelt theory is also suitable for analysis of behavioral and experiential dynamics at a group level.

A significant methodological advantage of Umwelt theory is that it is applicable with regard to both human and non-human experience and action within one of the same framework. It is true enough that mapping the human Umwelt requires making methodological specifications of various Umwelt features, but in principle this is the case with the mapping of the Umwelt of any organism.

Given the relational nature of the Umwelt, an organism endowed with an Umwelt is never truly alone. The pertinent questions when mapping Umwelten are: What other creatures does this organism relate to? And of what nature are these relations?

In our age, which many have come to call «the Anthropocene», the human species dominates many ecosystems, and has established a manifold of tightly controlled production systems and resource streams involving or affecting living creatures in both in-door and outdoor environments. In the Anthropocene discourse, the debate rages as to what level of human control is appropriate.

Big picture-notions and planetary perspectives are important, but so is the subjective animal perspective that von Uexküll emphasized. To what extent can these be combined? How are planetary boundaries related to the biosphere understood as semiosphere? Can tipping points, e.g. in climate dynamics, in some cases be understood as being of an ecosemiotic nature?

No matter what we conclude concerning such methodological questions, one can hardly overestimate the effect the human species has even on wildlife. We affect the experience and behaviour of animals by causing environmental changes in land, water and air, by influencing prey densities and the occurrence of natural enemies, and in some cases we also affect animals´ sociality or possibilities for courtship and mating. And towards many species, we behave like an unsustainable super-predator.

In the course of this presentation, I will apply notions such as Umwelt transition, Umwelt trajectory, Umwelt aggregate, and Umwelt alignment, in an attempt to outline some of the most important characteristics of contemporary human ecology. We no doubt affect animal behavior and experience on a massive scale both wittingly and unwittingly. To understand our changing relations to living beings and nature, we must be aware of the different forms relations can take on e.g. for wild, liminal and domesticated animals.

BIONOTE

Morten Tønnessen (born 1976) is Associate professor of philosophy at University of Stavanger´s Department of social studies. He has worked with Umwelt theory since his Master degree from University of Oslo (2002), and conducted his doctoral studies at University of Tartu (2011). Tønnessen has published extensively within biosemiotics and human-animal studies, and is currently President of the Nordic Association for Semiotic Studies and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Biosemiotics. Academic (b)log: http://UtopianRealism.blogspot.com.

Invitation to give keynote address in Uppsala

I have been invited to give one of the six keynote addresses at the Uppsala Minding Animals Pre-Conference event - and accepted. The academic event, which is titled Zoo-ethnographies, is to be arranged October 17-18.

Worktitle: "Two global species and their age-old foe: The semiotic eth(n)ology of wolves, sheep and people".