Traffic as 'dirt experience': Harold innis's tracing of media

In Harold Innis's work, a holistic theory of traffic and a theory of media as information systems continuously intersect. Innis grounds phenomena of circulation (goods, media) in an ecological understanding and in a specific situatedness. The article analyses this situatedness with regard to biographical aspects, to the implications of natural history for economic settings, and to Innis's methodological approach (field work). Thus it will be shown how Innis takes up ideas on traffic and transportation from the beginning of the 19th century that correlate the dimensions of communication, trade, and transport in a general theory of transfer.