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Framing Nature.Indd
The European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture, and the Environment (EASLCE) Biennial Conference Nordic Network for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies (NIES) IX Conference Hosted by the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu FRAMING NATURE: SIGNS, STORIES, AND ECOLOGIES OF MEANING ABSTRACTS April 29–MAY 3, 2014 TARTU, ESTONIA ORGANISERS European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture, and the Environment (EASLCE) Nordic Network for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies (NIES) HOST Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu COOPERATIVES Department of Literature and Theatre Research at the University of Tartu, Estonian Semiotics Association Centre for Environmental History (KAJAK) SUPPORTERS European Union European Regional Development Fund (CECT, EU/Estonia) Institute of Philosophy and Semiotics at the University of Tartu Norway Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 (project contract no EMP151) The Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC) European Society for Environmental History Gambling Tax Council ADVISORY BOARD Hannes Bergthaller Maunu Häyrynen Serenella Iovino Ulrike Plath Timo Maran ORGANISING TEAM Timo Maran Nelly Mäekivi Kadri Tüür Silver Rattasepp Riin Magnus EDITING Silver Rattasepp COVER DESIGN Pärt Ojamaa, Katre Pärn LAYOUT DESIGN Mehmet Emir Uslu PRINT University of Tartu Press ISBN 978-9949-32-570-2 (PDF) CONTENTS PLENARY LECTURES W. WHEELER E. W. B. HESS-LÜTTICH S. HARTMAN & T. MCGOVERN PRESENTATIONS W. ABBERLEY D. JørgeNSeN u. plAth A. BEARDSWORTH K. KacZMARCZYK, M. SaLVONI R. POTTER B. AĞIN DÖNmez Y. K. KAISINger J. prIeBe F. AYKANat W. KALAGA S. RattaSEPP J. BEEVER D. Kass Y. reDDIcK F. BELLARSI R. KERRIDGE T. REMM T. BENNETT m. KleStIl m. reYNolDS H. BERGTHALLER A. -
1 How Cognitive Frames About Nature May Affect Felt Sense of Nature
How cognitive frames about nature may affect felt sense of nature connectedness Nadine Andrews The Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business Lancaster University UK [email protected] ABSTRACT Nature connectedness tends to be understood as a relatively stable trait, studied using survey-based methods. But this approach is not well suited to investigating the nuances and unconscious processes of subjective experience. This paper addresses these limitations by using an alternative approach. I analyse the lived experience of nature connectedness using a post-positivist transdisciplinary methodology. Research participants report restorative benefits from connecting with nature but tensions and inconsistencies in their felt sense of connectedness can also be discerned. Using frame and metaphor analysis, I explore how particular ways of conceptualising nature, which can be inferred by use of language, may be contributing to these tensions and inconsistencies. The analysis and interpretation I offer is informed by concepts and theories from ecopsychology, environmental philosophy, cognitive linguistics and ecolinguistics. In this paper, language is understood to be a psychosocial phenomenon. In the research participants’ accounts I find language that promotes the non-human natural world as an object, that abstracts and homogenises living beings and their habitats, that encourages seeing nature as external and separate, and that primes us to be fast and busy. How these conceptualisations could affect sense of connectedness is discussed. The insights generated in this paper contribute to our understanding of nature connectedness as a subjective experience, and the ways in which particular conceptualisations may affect the quality of this experience. The paper also shows the methodological potential of frames and metaphor analysis, and the contribution that ecolinguistics can make to ecopsychology research. -
Normalizing Human-Animal Power Relations Through Media: Zoo Discourses in Turkey
Makale gönderilme tarihi: 21.06.2019 Makale kabul tarihi: 9.10.2019 Normalizing Human-Animal Power Relations Through Media: Zoo Discourses in Turkey Sezen Ergin Zengin Dr. Araştırma Görevlisi [email protected] Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Orcid: 0000-0001-5927-5357 Abstract This study examines zoo discourses on media as a conve- nient site for probing into human-animal power relations. A form of critical discourse analysis is carried out in national daily news discourse focusing on how zoo discourses portray animals through lexical choices, grammatical structures, and discursive strategies of capitalism, hospitality, and conservation. These strategies over- all operate to conceal the domination, oppression, and suffering of captive wild animals behind the benevolent image of the zoo insti- tution promoting conservation, education, and recreation. Through language, animals are constructed, on a superficial level, as sub- jects who enjoy their lives on natural habitats with their families. Yet further analysis reveals a power abuse in which animals are objectified and commodified for an exclusively human agenda. The study concludes that through the naturalizing effect of discourses human dominance over wild animals are never questioned and the zoos grant animals an instrumental value rather than inherent value. Key Words: Zoos, news discourses, critical animal studies, speciesism, critical discourse analysis DOI:10.16878/gsuilet.580339 10 İleti-ş-im 31 • aralık/december/décembre 2019 Normalisation des relations de pouvoir entre l’homme et l’animal par le biais des médias: le discours sur les zoos en Turquie Résumé Cette étude analyse le discours portant sur les zoos dans les médias, qui nous permettent d’analyser les relations de pouvoir entre l’homme et l’animal. -
Ecolinguistics: the Battlefield for the New Class Struggle?
Language & Ecology 2020 http://ecolinguistics-association.org/journal I nternational Ecolinguistics Association Article Ecolinguistics: The battlefield for the new class struggle? Diego L. Forte University of Buenos Aires, Argentina E-mail: [email protected] Abstract According to its founding fathers, ecolinguistics was conceived as a discipline whose object of study is the relationship of language with its environment; that is, the relationship between humans and non-human animals, plants, minerals, etc. (Fill & Mühlhäusler, 2001). Although its formal beginnings as a discipline occurred at the end of the twentieth century, its background brings together a multitude of critical studies based on well-established traditions, such as critical animal studies, decolonial studies, glotopolitical studies, etc., adopting as framework and theoretical tools different elements from different linguistic subdisciplines: critical discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, etc. But due to this broad approach, at times its critical perspective seems to blur: its “ecological” approach goes after the shallow environmentalism posed by the Brundtland Report (1987) moving away from the Marxian logic of class struggle and does not deepen its analysis enough to identify actors and processes in social practices. Our proposal argues that the critical effectiveness of the discipline must not only be based on a reworking of the concept of social classes, following Laclau and Mouffe (1985), but that the deconstruction of the logic of hegemony must also include the theoretical perspectives that analyse the situation of other oppressed groups: feminist movements, ethnic, sexual, national divergences, etc. Keywords: ecolinguistics, discourse, Marxism, hegemony, oppressed groups 1. Ecolinguistics as a critical perspective The development of ecolinguistics as a discipline is relatively new. -
Fantastic Ecosemiosis: an Analysis of Fantasy As Nature-Text in the Lord of the Rings Lance Michael Sacknoff Iowa State University
Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2014 Fantastic ecosemiosis: An analysis of Fantasy as nature-text in The Lord of the Rings Lance Michael Sacknoff Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons, and the Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Sacknoff, Lance Michael, "Fantastic ecosemiosis: An analysis of Fantasy as nature-text in The Lord of the Rings" (2014). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 13762. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/13762 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Fantastic ecosemiosis: An analysis of Fantasy as nature-text in The Lord of the Rings by Lance M. Sacknoff A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major: English (Literature) Program of Study Committee: Dometa J. Brothers, Major Professor Matthew Wynn Sivils Daniel Coffey Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2014 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................... -
Two Decades of Ecosemiotics in Tartu
630 Timo Maran Sign Systems Studies 46(4), 2018, 630–639 Two decades of ecosemiotics in Tartu Timo Maran1 Th is paper aims to provide an overview of ecosemiotics (or semiotic ecology) particularly as developed at the University of Tartu (Estonia) and adjacent academic communities. Th e fi rst ecosemiotic publications were issued in Tartu in 1998 and thus the history of the field now reaches back two decades. The rationale of the paper is twofold: to preserve the record of the activities of Tartu’s ecosemiotics and to publicize the paradigm in the context of contemporary environmental humanities. Its emergence and development being closely bound to the scholars in Tartu, ecosemiotics is now a well-established theory of its own. In the following I present the main events, where the University of Tartu was involved, which facilitated this theoretical development. Ecosemiotics studies semiosic or sign-mediated aspects of ecology (including relations between human culture and the environment).2 It has been defi ned as “the study of sign processes which relate organisms to their natural environment” (Nöth 2001: 71) or as the semiotic discipline investigating “human relationships to nature which have a semiosic (sign-mediated) basis” (Kull 1998: 351). Th is means that ecosemiotics is one of the semiotic theories that extends the scope of a central concept of semiotics – the sign (understood as a mediated relation) – from human culture to other species and, particularly, to ecological systems. More recently, we have specifi ed ecosemiotics to be “a branch of semiotics that studies sign processes as responsible for ecological phenomena” (Maran, Kull 2014: 41). -
An Interview with Arran Stibbe
Language & Ecology 2016, www.ecoling.net/journal Ecolinguistics in an International Context: an Interview with Arran Stibbe by Guowen Huang [email protected] Introduction Recently there has been a growing interest in the study of ecolinguistic issues in China, and Chinese scholars approach the field from many different perspectives, including the ecology of language, ecological analysis of discourse, and eco-translation studies. As expected, the newly-published book Ecolinguistics: language, ecology and the stories we live by (Routledge, 2015) by Arran Stibbe is becoming popular in China and its Chinese translation is to be published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press in Beijing later in the year. Along with this encouraging moment, an ecology-centred journal in China, the Journal of Poyang Lake, is to have a Special Column in a forthcoming issue featuring Arran’s research on ecolinguistics. I (Guowen Huang) am directing the project which is translating Arran’s book and producing the special column for the Journal of Poyang Lake. I am Director of the Centre for Ecolinguistics at South China Agricultural University (SCAU), China, as well as Dean of the College of Foreign Studies at SCAU. I have previously conducted a significant amount of research on Systemic Functional Linguistics and have been teaching and researching ecolinguistics from the perspective of ecological analysis of discourse. I am organizing the first symposium on ecolinguistics in China, to be held during Nov. 25-27, 2016 at SCAU in Guangzhou, which has attracted more than 200 abstracts/participants, including more than 30 ecolinguistic scholars from outside China. -
Animal Umwelten in a Changing World
Tartu Semiotics Library 18 Tartu Tartu Semiotics Library 18 Animal umwelten in a changing world: Zoosemiotic perspectives represents a clear and concise review of zoosemiotics, present- ing theories, models and methods, and providing interesting examples of human–animal interactions. The reader is invited to explore the umwelten of animals in a successful attempt to retrieve the relationship of people with animals: a cornerstone of the past common evolutionary processes. The twelve chapters, which cover recent developments in zoosemiotics and much more, inspire the reader to think about the human condition and about ways to recover our lost contact with the animal world. Written in a clear, concise style, this collection of articles creates a wonderful bridge between Timo Maran, Morten Tønnessen, human and animal worlds. It represents a holistic approach Kristin Armstrong Oma, rich with suggestions for how to educate people to face the dynamic relationships with nature within the conceptual Laura Kiiroja, Riin Magnus, framework of the umwelt, providing stimulus and opportuni- Nelly Mäekivi, Silver Rattasepp, ties to develop new studies in zoosemiotics. Professor Almo Farina, CHANGING WORLD A IN UMWELTEN ANIMAL Paul Thibault, Kadri Tüür University of Urbino “Carlo Bo” This important book offers the first coherent gathering of perspectives on the way animals are communicating with each ANIMAL UMWELTEN other and with us as environmental change requires increasing adaptation. Produced by a young generation of zoosemiotics scholars engaged in international research programs at Tartu, IN A CHANGING this work introduces an exciting research field linking the biological sciences with the humanities. Its key premises are that all animals participate in a dynamic web of meanings WORLD: and signs in their own distinctive styles, and all animal spe- cies have distinctive cultures. -
Association for the Study of Literature and Environment Ninth Biennial
Association for the Study of Literature and Environment Ninth Biennial Conference Welcome to Bloomington! On behalf of Indiana University, I am pleased to welcome you to the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment 2011 Conference. This important event brings together artists, teachers, writers, and scholars from around the world who share a deep interest in the environment, its meanings, representations, and interpretations in language and culture. It is a special pleasure for Indiana University to host this conference on our Bloomington campus because of our longstanding commitment to issues concerning the environment. That commitment dates back at least to our legendary 11th President Herman B Wells, who fiercely protected the beautiful green spaces on campus. This tradition contin- ues in the university’s careful stewardship of our campus’s natural resources and our firm commitment to the outstanding scholarship that will help us understand and appreciate our changing environment. Michael McRobbie President, Indiana University Thanks Many thanks to our hosts at Indiana University, especially: Michael A. McRobbie, President of Indiana University Karen Hanson, Provost of Indiana University Bloomington and Executive Vice President, Indiana University David Zaret, Interim Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington Jean Robinson, Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences Steve Watt, Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences Jonathan Elmer, Chair, Department of English Scott Sanders, Distinguished -
Towards a Sympoietic Art Practice with Plants L M
TOWARDS A SYMPOIETIC ART PRACTICE WITH PLANTS L M CHARLSTON PhD 2019 1 Towards a Sympoietic Art Practice with Plants LINDA MARY CHARLSTON A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Manchester Metropolitan University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Manchester School of Art Research Centre Faculty of Arts and Humanities Manchester Metropolitan University 2019 2 Towards a Sympoietic Art Practice with Plants ABSTRACT At a time of crisis in human relationships with the natural world, this practice-as-research project comprises selected artworks and a written thesis investigating co-creativity with plants. The openly exploratory and speculative research scrutinises changes to plant-artist relationality as I develop a sympoietic art practice with plants, conceived as ethically accountable, co-creative ‘making-with’ plants, inspired by Haraway’s 'naturecultures' (2016). Sympoietic practice engages affirmatively with posthuman ethics of non-exploitative, egalitarian and ecologically situated practice, re-conceptualises plant-artist relations and makes way for accepting plants as agentially-active, co-expressive partners (Bennett, 2010, Marder, 2013). Manifestations of sympoietic art practice explored through co-creative processes of growing, making and walking with-plants contribute to the variegated nature of practice-as-research by reaching out in multiple directions to connect feminist and posthumanist theories (Barad, 2007, Braidotti, 2013, Alaimo, 2016) with artistic research (Schwab, 2018), poetic encounters, science and everyday life. In response to sympoietic concerns, temporary assemblages of interconnected events add participation, performativity and ecological awareness to the poetry and production of the artist-book. Sympoietic art processes have revealed multiple hindrances to my relationship with plants despite artistic closeness. -
The Paradigm of Peircean Biosemiotics
30 Søren Brier Copenhagen Business School, department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, [email protected] The Paradigm of Peircean Biosemiotics Abstract The failure of modern science to create a common scientific framework for nature and consciousness makes it necessary to look for broader foundations in a new philosophy. Although controversial for modern science, the Peircean semiotic, evolutionary, pragmatic and triadic philosophy has been the only modern conceptual framework that can support that transdisciplinary change in our view of knowing that bridges the two cultures and transgresses Cartesian dualism. It therefore seems ideal to build on it for modern biosemiotics and can, in combination with Luhmann’s theory of communication, encompass modern information theory, complexity science and thermodynamics. It allows focus on the connection between the concept of codes and signs in living systems, and makes it possible to re-conceptualize both internal and external processes of the human body, mind and communication in models that fit into one framework. Keywords: autopoiesis, biosemiotics, Cybersemiotics, Peirce, Sebeok, Hoffmeyer, Kull, Emmeche, Brier, zoösemiotics, phytosemiotics, endosemiotics, ethology, Copenhagen School of Biosemiotics Introduction Semiotics (from the Greek word for sign) is a transdisciplinary study and doctrine of signs in general including signification, perception, communication, codes, media , language and the sign systems used parallel with language. Another way to define it is as the science of signs and their life in society. Code is broadly defined as: everything of a more systematic/orderly nature that the source and the receiver need to know a priori about the relation between the signs in a message both in analogue and digital form, and the area of reality they refer to in order to interpret it. -
'Houseless – Homeless – Hopeless!': Suburbs, Slums and Ghosts 1830
Notes 1 ‘Houseless – Homeless – Hopeless!’: Suburbs, Slums and Ghosts 1830–1870 1. John Summerson, in Georgian London (1991) in fact describes a fourfold originary suburban typology: i) overgrowth of existing villages; ii) building of remote villas; iii) roadside developments along key routes; iv) development of self-standing estates. 2. The Crystal Palace was of course of crucial architectural significance; the first iron and glass structure in the world, strong, durable, light, adaptable and moveable. It was also immensely popular and, despite its official role show- casing British scientific and imperial achievement, was actually dedicated to amusements, spectacles, games and sports. 3. See also Sanitary Ramblings, Being Sketches and Illustrations of Bethnal Green by Hector Gavin (London: Frank Cass, 1971), 1872’s London: a Pilgrimage by Jerrold and Dore ( Jerrold and Dore, 2004), In the Slums by the Rev. D. Rice- Jones (London: Dodo Press, 2009). 4. See http://booth.lse.ac.uk for reproductions of Booth’s maps. 5. Ironically, this prestigious lineage serves to further undermine Sparkin’s authenticity. Originally, the suffix ‘Fitz’ indicated that the person named was illegitimate, was in fact of Royal bastard lineage. 6. This lack of suburban individual substance reaches a comic, even uncanny, extreme in Great Expectations Here, Wemmick’s intended wife, at home in his Walworth ‘castle’, is portrayed as wind-up automaton, made from wood. Wemmick himself is a robotic commuter lacking free will. 7. First recorded, incidentally, in the 1860s, and according to one source: ‘The cheap, flimsy constructs of Jerry Brothers – a Liverpool building firm.’ See http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/211600.html.