The main task of this dissertation is to contribute to the development of Umwelt concepts and models - Umwelt theory in the tradition after Jakob von Uexküll - and to attempt to describe the semiotic mechanisms that regulate the wolf and sheep populations in Scandinavia, especially through their interaction with the human species. The case study on Norwegian wolf management is used as a test case for the application of theoretical concepts and models developed in the thesis. The thesis includes seven published papers. While three of them provide analysis of Uexküll's conceptual apparatus and develop it in terms of a diachronic phenomenological approach, two are devoted to mapping of global aspects of human ecology and two to ecosemiotic analysis of current Norwegian wolf ecology.
The core concept of this work is Umwelt transition, which represents an Uexküllian notion of environmental change. Uexküllian phenomenology differs from most established phenomenologies by not being consciousness-centred, and by not adopting neutrality with regard to the reality status of phenomena. Umwelt transition - environmental change as manifested at the subjective, experiential level - differs from the mainstream, physio-chemical notion of environmental change in that it is a wider notion applicable in biology (both developmental and evolutionary) and cultural studies alike. A tripartite model of the human Umwelt (applicable in combination with phenomenal fields - and generalised so as to apply to animals in general) is sketched. The thesis eventually establishes that future wolf symbolicity in its negative aspects - in the Norwegian context mirroring agricultural developments - will determine the prospects of wolf conservation.
Supervisor: prof Kalevi Kull
Opponents: prof Jesper Hoffmeyer (University of Copenhagen); ass. prof Dominique Lestel (Ecole normale superieure Paris)
Morten Tonnessen "Umwelt Transition and Uexküllian Phenomenology: An Ecosemiotic Analysis of Norwegian Wolf Management"
Date:
15.12.2011 - 12:15 to 15:00
Organizer:
Institute of Philosophy and Semiotic
Location:
UT Council Hall
Event category: