Doctoral defence: Lona Päll "Bridging the disconnections: an ecosemiotic approach to place-lore in environmental conflict communication"

On 31 March at 10:15 Lona Päll will defend her doctoral thesis "Bridging the disconnections: an ecosemiotic approach to place-lore in environmental conflict communication" for obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (in Semiotics and Culture Studies).

Supervisors:
Professor Timo Maran, University of Tartu
Lecturer Ergo-Hart Västrik, University of Tartu

Opponents:
Professor Tema Milstein, University of New South Wales (Australia)
Associate Professor Renata Sõukand, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia (Italy)

Summary

The dissertation analyses the role of place-lore in environmental conflicts, drawing on recent case studies from Estonia on disputes over sacred natural sites, forestry management, and protecting trees in urban spaces.

Place-lore expresses semiotic engagement with specific environments and diverse forms of ecological knowledge. These kinds of contextual and local narratives are often rooted in interpretations of environmental meanings, such as ecological conditions, temporal changes, etc. and as such, are complementary to the environment they represent. At the same time, place-lore represents identities, knowledge, and ideological perspectives related to cultural heritage and the environment, often playing a role in environmental debates. The semiotic potential of place-lore is inherently ambivalent: it can escalate conflicts by emphasizing opposing perspectives or, conversely, help ground them by integrating ecological and cultural knowledge to foster diverse environmental engagement.

The dissertation critically investigates how place-lore has been used in conflicts and how the characteristics of conflict communication and new presentation contexts (public discussions, protests, legal disputes, and media coverage) influence these stories. In conflict communication, the connections between place-lore and the specific environment it represents tend to be ignored and as a result, the multivocality and environmental meanings originally embedded in the stories are often suppressed. Place-lore is frequently used selectively to create opposition and escalate conflict, which can have tangible ecological consequences.

To respond to these challenges, the dissertation introduces strategies for reintroducing into conflict disputes the multivocality and important ecological knowledge embedded in place-lore for the purpose of making the debates more productive and inclusive. To contribute to the scholarly and practical discourse, the thesis presents a new theoretical framework for the study of place-lore, develops ecosemiotic models, and proposes practical solutions for managing environmental conflicts. In doing so, it lays the groundwork for further research on the role of local, contextual narratives in addressing environmental crises and navigating urgently needed changes in the context of environmental crisis.

Defence can be also followed in Zoom (meeting ID: 962 3899 0293, passcode: 018742).