The Materiality of Expression: Harold Innis’ Communication Theory and the Discursive Turn in the Human Sciences

This essay proposes that Harold Innis’ theory of communication can make a crucial contribution to the tendency in philosophy of the human sciences that has been referred to as “discourse theory.” Discourse theory takes language use as the characteristic phenomenon of human activity. Innis’ focus on the sensuous materiality of media of communication analyzes media as the institution of social relations rather than as the representation of events. A generalization of this approach suggests a concept of society as a complex of expressive media whose “bias” determines the specificity of a culture.