Harold Innis and the Chicago School

Harold Innis has been considered by some Canadian sociologists and communication theorists as part of the “Chicago School,” particularly those members of the school such as George Herbert Mead, who were concerned with Ihe theory and practice of communication. The Chicago School at the University of Chicago during the time when Innis was doing his graduate work was a heterogeneous group of scholars in different disciplines. The paper argues that while Innis is influenced to some degree by the economists in the “school,” he was not part of the Chicago School of “sociologists.” Indeed, Mead's theory of communication could have complemented Innis's important insights into the relationship between the transportation of ideas and institutional development