Semiotics and the species management discourse: the temporal dynamics of the emergence of new species
Semiotics and the species management discourse: the temporal dynamics of the emergence of new species

Summary/Abstract: The present era of anthropogenic environmental change creates conditions for many species to spread beyond their initial living ranges – a process that may have further effects on local ecosystems, human societies and cultures. The purpose of this chapter is to map the semiotic and temporal dynamics of these processes by focusing on the semiotic activity and dynamics of the new species and different interest groups in human societies. A specific feature of human discourse on new or invasive species appears to be its dynamic nature, with new species adapting to the local ecosystem, thereby changing knowledge of the interested human parties, with no participant having full information of the process. In order to study such dynamical interactions between culture and nature, the present chapter synthesises understandings of the semiotics of cultural change (Lotman 2009), of the semiotics of environmental communication (Low 2008), of the social studies of species management, and of Actor-Network Theory (Callon 1986; Law 2008; Latour 1997), as well as of the semiotics of animal modelling (Uexküll 1982; Sebeok 1990, 1991) and culture-nature relations (Kull 1998).

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