The International Society for Biosemiotic Studies (ISBS) is an academic society for the researchers in
semiotic biology. The Society was established in 2005. Its official journal is
Biosemiotics
Biosemiotics (from the Greek βίος ''bios'', "life" and σημειωτικός ''sēmeiōtikos'', "observant of signs") is a field of semiotics and biology that studies the prelinguistic meaning-making, biological interpretation processes, p ...
, published by
Springer
Springer or springers may refer to:
Publishers
* Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag.
** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...
and launched in 2008.
The purpose of the ISBS is to constitute an organizational framework for the collaboration among scholars dedicated to biosemiotic studies, including the
interdisciplinary
Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...
research of
sign process
Semiosis (, ), or sign process, is any form of activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, including the production of meaning. A sign is anything that communicates a meaning, that is not the sign itself, to the interpreter of the sign ...
es in
living system
Living systems are open self-organizing life forms that interact with their environment. These systems are maintained by flows of information, energy and matter.
In the last few decades, some scientists have proposed that a general living systems ...
s, organic codes, and
biocommunication. The ISBS attempts to develop the
qualitative research
Qualitative research is a type of research that aims to gather and analyse non-numerical (descriptive) data in order to gain an understanding of individuals' social reality, including understanding their attitudes, beliefs, and motivation. This ...
methods in biology. Among the central focuses is also
theoretical semiotics as a basis for
theoretical biology.
The ISBS assures the organization of regular meetings on research into the semiotics of nature, as well as promotes publication of scholarly work on the semiotics of life processes. The ISBS organizes the annual international conferences (''Gatherings in Biosemiotics'') that were started by Copenhagen and Tartu biosemioticians and have taken place regularly already since 2001.
[Rattasepp, Silver; Bennett, Tyler (eds.) 2012. ''Gatherings in Biosemiotics''. (Tartu Semiotics Library 11.) Tartu: University of Tartu Press.]
The first President of the ISBS was
Jesper Hoffmeyer (Copenhagen University), the second President (since 2015) is
Kalevi Kull.
References
External links
Homepage of the International Society for Biosemiotic Studies''Biosemiotics'', the official journal of the Society
International scientific organizations
Biology organizations
Semiotics organizations
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