Langedrag next

New field trip, September 22-25: To Langedrag mountain farm and wildlifepark - 500 km by train + 30 km by car, on the way back 30 km by bike + 500 km by train.

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Langedrag has two enclosures with captive wolves - one socialized and another 'wild'. Unlike with Polar Zoo, where I visited in March, at Langedrag visitors are taken into the confinement of the shyest gang, not the most socialized one. The terms, however, appear to have another meaning than in Polar Zoo, where the shy couple did not receive visits and would not have approached people like they appear to do at Langedrag.

"Is a wolf..." published in Humanimalia

My article "Is a wolf wild as long as it does not know that it is being thoroughly handled?" has been published today in the American online journal Humanimalia, published at DePauw University. Issue 3 (volume 2, number 1 - Fall 2010) includes two further Nordic contributions (book reviews by Helena Pedersen - Malmö - and Tora Holmberg, Uppsala).

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Abstract:

The topic of wildness is a matter of ongoing debate in the wildlife management community. In this essay it is related to questions of shyness and actual human interference (especially on the management side). The well-documented case of the Scandinavian wolf population suggests that shyness is not a sufficient criterion for wildness. For all the wolf knows, it is still a wild animal – and it still behaves like one. But are we justified in claiming that a (more or less) free-ranging wolf is truly wild, simply because it does not know that it is being thoroughly managed? The article introduces this theme and the case at hand, covering wolf mortality, human artifacts in the life-world of wolves, and captures. The long-term goal of wildlife conservation, the author proposes, should be to restore the independent viability of wildlife. Wildness, in short, has to go beyond appearances. In a closing note, Arne Næss’ philosophy of wolf policies is critically evaluated.

Formally done as research assistant

My engagement as a research assistent (advisor) for the Norwegian research project "Multimodality, literacy and learning" (MULL), at University of Agder, has formally expired as of September 15th.

Mapping human impact revised

Some hours ago I finished revising my article "Mapping human impact: Expanding horizons - Interdisciplinary integration", cf. previous posts, for the forthcoming CECT II proceedings. In the process I have added approximately 1.000 words (but removed 4 figures).

Outline:

Intro

Qualities and quantities

Ecological footprint and ontological niche: Two complementary approaches

Development of ontological maps

On interpreting numerical data qualitatively

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Abstract:

At a general level, the recurring topic of this article is the opposition and complementarity of qualitative and quantitative aspects of empirical data. In particular, an attempt is made to develop means to qualify quantitative data. More particularly, however, the aim of the current text is to investigate the extent of human impact in nature in contemporary times – or more precisely to evaluate proposed representations thereof. The theoretical perspective stems from ecosemiotics and biosemiotics, with special emphasis on a phenomenological reading of Jakob von Uexküll.

An important component of this contribution consists of a discussion of the merits and shortcomings of two methodologies – the ecological footprint (a common tool in policy-making) and the ontological niche (the author's own coinage based on the theory of ecosemiotics). One of the main objectives of the developers of the ecological footprint concept was to make the general public and policy-makers aware of excessive resource use. While that is estimable in its right context, the author proposes that the ontological niche concept can complement the ecological footprint notion by covering aspects of the environmental problématique which for conceptual reasons the former cannot cover. Overcoming the ecological crisis requires awareness of the global dimension and the resource situation, but also of the personal, experiential aspects of our current predicament – our personal involvement in humankind’s material engagement in the ecosystems. The texture of reality is what is ultimately at stake here, and the ontological niche notion is introduced so as to emphasize our embedded, rather than detached, position in the world of the living.

The basic motion in this text is that from self to world. Exemplifying what the ontological niche amounts to, the author provides ontological maps ranging from the social relations of one individual to a rough sketch of the global ecological situation. In a concluding section the general problem of interpreting numerical data qualitatively is approached by way of three steps: (1) Determining existence status, (2) Determining the character of the relation and (3) Translating numerical data to characterizing terms.

THE world ranking of universities

This year I am one of the many who have voted (upon invitation) as part of the Times Higher Education (THE)'s annual ranking of the world's top 200 universities. The ranking has just been published. These are the universities I have collaborators at, and/or have visited, and/or have academic contacts at (the University of Oslo is so far not ranked, due to lacking info - and I am sure I am leaving out some):

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6. University of Cambridge, UK (visited)

17. University of Toronto, Canada (contact)

34. National university of Singapore, Singapore (contact)

89. Lund university, Sweden (contact)

102. University of Helsinki, Finland (visited, contact)

106. Purdue university, USA (contact)

115. National Taiwan university, Taiwan (contact)

135. University of Bergen, Norway (visited, contact, collaborator)

147. Uppsala university, Sweden (contact, collaborator)

167. Aarhus university, Denmark (contact)

170. University of Groningen, Netherlands (visited)

177. University of Copenhagen, Denmark (visited, contact)

Zoosemiotics abstract: Umwelt trajectories

I have just finished my abstract for the forthcoming zoosemiotics conference.

Morten Tønnessen

The Umwelt trajectories of wolves, sheep and people

Abstract for the conference ZOOSEMIOTICS AND ANIMAL REPRESENTATIONS

This paper contributes to developing Umwelt terminology, and simultaneously offers an analysis of past and current interrelations of wolves, sheep and people, thus providing an application of the notation suggested.

The starting point for the author’s terminology is the concept of an Umwelt transition, which is in effect an Uexküllian notion of environmental change. An Umwelt transition can be defined as a lasting, systematic change within the life cycle of a being, considered from an ontogenetic (individual), phylogenetic (population-, species-) or cultural perspective, from one typical appearance of its Umwelt (i.e., organism-specific phenomenal world) to another. An Umwelt trajectory, the author proposes, can be characterized as the course through evolutionary (and cultural) time taken by the Umwelt of a creature, as defined by its changing relations with the Umwelten of other creatures. Thus defined it represents an evolutionary and mass equivalent of Jakob von Uexküll’s notion of the Umwelt-tunnel of a single individual creature.

As we can see, the Umwelt trajectory of a creature is the historical path of its perceptual and behavioral dispositions considered from an ecological and phenomenological point of view. As such, it is intimately tied to this creature’s ontological niche, i.e. the set of contrapuntal relations that a being takes part in at a given point of natural history. Like the Umwelt tunnel and the ontological niche, the Umwelt trajectory of a creature can be regarded as a specification of the Umwelt concept which situates it in terms of temporal perspective.

Taken as a whole the Umwelten of wolves, sheep and people represent an Umwelt triad of sorts, given that they have been and remain intertwined and codependent. This triple Umwelt is telling of both ecological and cultural developments. In cultural terms, hardly any animals are as loaded with symbolic value as the wolf and the sheep. And the shared importance is no coincidence, as the symbolism of the two animals has developed in explicit opposition to each other. Altogether the wolf-sheep duet, the human-sheep duet and the human-wolf duet – to speak with Uexküll – constitute a highly coordinated triple duet in the great symphony of nature.

The most enlivening aspect of this narrative concerns the semiotic and phenomenological interplay that takes place amid wolves, sheep and people. While the most relevant long-term process of change varies from creature to creature – evolution for wolves, breeding for sheep and cultural development for people (all of which represent broad categories of Umwelt transitions) – there are several common factors at play as well. In this paper, the author will touch upon a) the geographical range and overlap, (b) the sensory range and overlap, and c) the functional range and overlap of wolves, sheep and people. The most crucial arena for semiotic interplay (and thus semiotic causation) is that of functional interrelations, particularly with regard to companionship and enmity. In our current ecological situation, where the human species has emerged as a global species in charge of an ecological empire wherein the sheep, among other species, has been given a privileged position, even the wolf has entered into a dependency relation with our kind. For better or worse, our Umwelt trajectories have (once again) aligned.

Philosophy pecha kucha-style

I've uploaded a video of my pecha kucha-presentation of 'The history of philosophy in 1-2-3' to YouTube (parental warning: Norwegian language).