EMP151 "Animals in changing environments: Cultural mediation and semiotic analysis"

1. EMP151 "Animals in changing environments: Cultural mediation and semiotic analysis" Timo Maran, University of Tartu, Department of semiotics

2. EMP151 "Animals in changing environments: Cultural mediation and semiotic analysis“ The goal of the project: • to find out how humans perceive and represent animals in changing environments and how environmental change in turn influences human-animal relations. The project focused on problematic cases of changing human-animal relations and their cultural representations in Estonian and Norwegian context. Fourcasestudies: • Animals in nature writing with a focus on the ways animals and their agency is depicted and conceptualized in literary texts; • Representations (both problematic and romanticizing) of large carnivores, especially wolves; • Agencies and conflicts of interest in zoological gardens as an environment for mediated communication; • Adaptation of human ˗ guide dog relations to changing urban environments.

3. EMP151 "Animals in changing environments: Cultural mediation and semiotic analysis“ Results • The project developed layered methodology for analyzing human-animal relations that addresses in the same framework animal semiosis, environmental contexts as well as cultural texts and human social and cultural dynamics. • Theory-wise, the project enhanced understanding of the hybridization of sign systems, of the semiotic dynamics of human-animal aggregations, and of the attribution and projection of cultural meanings to animals. • Case studies provided a significant new knowledge on respective topics. For instance, the case study on animals in literature gave information on changing cultural representations of fish and fishing in the Nordic region. In the case study on representations of large mammals, people’s attitudes to wolves were studied based on interviews in Norway and cultural interpretations of the new species, Golden Jackal, were analyzed in Estonian context.

4. EMP151 "Animals in changing environments: Cultural mediation and semiotic analysis“ Results • Joint monograph “Animal Umwelten in a Changing World. Zoosemiotic Perspectives” (all project members were contributing). • The project resulted in 44 publications (6 co-authored by Estonian and Norwegian scholars), 2 edited volumes, 1 special issue, 1 monograph and 1 PhD thesis. • Project allowed fruitful cooperation between research groups in U. of Tartu and U. of Stavanger, Norway (led by M. Tønnessen).The co-operation included mutual visits to research seminars and conferences (17 visits to Norway by Estonian partners, 4 visits to Estonia by Norwegian partners), elaborating research methods and co-operation in editing collections of papers and in organizing academic conferences.