{{Short description|Branch of semiotics}} '''Ecosemiotics''' is a branch of semiotics in its intersection with human ecology, ecological anthropology and ecocriticism. It studies sign processes in culture, which relate to other living beings, communities, and landscapes.<ref>Farina, Almo; Santolini, Riccardo; Pagliaro, Giacomo; Scozzafava, Silvia; Schipani, Ileana 2005. Ecosemiotics: A new field of competence for ecology to overcome the frontier between environmental complexity and human culture in the Mediterranean. ''Israel Journal of Plant Sciences'' 53(3/4): 167–175.</ref> Ecosemiotics also deals with sign-mediated aspects of ecosystems. <ref>Nielsen, Søren Nors 2007. Towards an ecosystem semiotics: Some basic aspects for a new research programme. Ecological Complexity 4(3): 93–101.</ref>
As stressed in ecosemiotic studies, environment has semiotic quality in different ways and levels. Material environment has affordances and potentials to participate in sign relations. Animal species attribute meanings to the environment based on their needs and umwelts. In human culture, environment can become meaningful in literary and artistic representations or through symbolization of animals or landscapes. Cultural representations of the environment in turn influence the natural environment through human actions.
Ecosemiotics analyzes processes, transmissions and problems that occur in and between the different semiotic layers of the environment. The central focus of ecosemiotics concerns the role of concepts (sign-based models people have) in designing and changing the environment. Concepts of ecosemiotic analysis are, for instance, semiocide, affordance, ecofield, consortium, dissent.
The field was initiated by Winfried Nöth and Kalevi Kull, and later elaborated by Almo Farina and Timo Maran.<ref>*Maran, Timo 2007. Towards an integrated methodology of ecosemiotics: The concept of nature-text. ''Sign Systems Studies'' 35(1/2): 269–294.</ref> Ecosemiotics includes (or largely overlaps) with semiotics of landscape.<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/11557974/Landscape_semiotics Lindström, Kati; Kull, Kalevi; Palang, Hannes 2014. Landscape semiotics: Contribution to culture theory.] In: Lang, Valter; Kull, Kalevi (eds.), ''Estonian Approaches to Culture Theory''. Tartu: University of Tartu Press, 110–132.</ref>
==See also== *Biosemiotics *Ecolinguistics *Environmental hermeneutics *Environmental history *Jakob von Uexküll Centre
==Literature== *Nöth, Winfried 1998. Ecosemiotics. ''Sign Systems Studies'' 26: 332–343. *Kull, Kalevi 1998. Semiotic ecology: Different natures in the semiosphere. ''Sign Systems Studies'' 26: 344–371.[https://www.academia.edu/6016834/Semiotic_ecology_different_natures_in_the_semiosphere] *Maran, Timo; Kull, Kalevi 2014. Ecosemiotics: main principles and current developments. ''Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography'' 96(1): 41–50.[https://www.academia.edu/6608956/Maran_and_Kull_-_Ecosemiotics_main_principles_and_current_developments] *Siewers, Alfred Kentigern 2013. Re-Imagining Nature: Environmental Humanities and Ecosemiotics. Bucknell University Press.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110812073413/http://www.wix.com/jorgeconesasevilla/ecopsychology Evolutionary ecopsychology and ecosemiotics]
{{environmental humanities}}
Category:Semiotics Category:Ecology Category:Environmental humanities
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