Towards an Archaeology of Media Ecologies: ‘Media Ecology’, Political Subjectivation and Free Radios

In this article the emergent paradigm of media ecologies is distinguished from the ‘actually existing’ media ecology emerging out of the work of McLuhan, Postman and the media ecology association. The appearance of Fuller’s book was understandably unsettling for members of the latter and certainly marks at least a profound rupture in the media ecological paradigm if not a total break. The article goes on to examine one of the key sources for this break, namely Felix Guattari’s engagements withboth media and ecology and especially focuses on the way the latter was energised by and engaged with free radio movements in both Italy and France. The article traces how, with the decline of the political movements they were inseparable from, these ecologies could no longer be sustained. Nevertheless as examples ranging from the London pirate radio to forms of tactical and sovereign media demonstrate, the political potential of media ecologies remain active and effective in the present.