Conference Contemporary Umwelt Analysis: Applications for Culture and Ecological Relations
University of Tartu
The Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu will organise a conference Contemporary Umwelt Analysis: Applications for Culture and Ecological Relations and will especially look for contributions on the following topics: umwelt analysis across disciplines (ecology, anthropology, literary studies, economics, etc.); umwelt analysis in different applications, methods, and fieldwork; human and animal umwelten in the era of anthropogenic environmental change; contemporary developments in umwelt thinking.
Umwelt analysis, initially proposed by Jakob von Uexküll, revolutionised studies on animal behaviour and perception by targeting them as semiotic phenomena, that is, as based on meanings and signs. In the Institute of Umwelt Research in Hamburg, of which Uexküll was the director, umwelt theory served as a shared theoretical ground for research on topics as diverse as the umwelten of fighting fish to the training methods of guide dogs. In the 21st century, the scope of umwelt theory has vastly expanded, both in terms of disciplines – ranging from anthropology to ecology – and the phenomena that are addressed with the help of the theory. Novel theoretical connections and disciplinary embeddings, as well as new changes in the lifeworld itself, bring along new challenges and questions: how to fit umwelt theory with existing methodologies and theoretical backgrounds of various other disciplines, how to make it a working analytical tool in the context of human-induced environmental change, and what are the methodologies that have been developed since the times of Uexküll that would help to conduct empirical analyses of animal umwelten today.
To scrutinise these questions, the Department of Semiotics at the University of Tartu will organise a conference Contemporary Umwelt Analysis: Applications for Culture and Ecological Relations on 18 – 19 April 2023.
Find more details here.