Ivan Illich
From P2P Foundation
Intellectual Bio
From http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-illic.htm :
" Ivan Illich's concern for conviviality - on the ordering of education, work, and society as a whole in line with human needs, and his call for the 'deprofessionalization' of social relations has provided an important set of ideas upon which educators concerned with mutuality and sociality can draw. His critique of the school and call for the deschooling of society hit a chord with many workers and alternative educators. Further, Ivan Illich's argument for the development of educational webs or networks connected with an interest in 'non-formal' approaches and with experiments in 'free' schooling. Last, his interest in professionalization and the extent to which medical interventions, for example, actually create illness has added to the critique of professions and a concern to interrogate practice by informal educators - especially those in more 'community-oriented' work. As Gajardo (1994: 717) has commented, 'if... we separate Illich's thought from its emotional context, it is interesting to realize how thought-provoking some of his suggestions and proposals are'.
Erich Fromm, in his introduction to Celebration of Awareness (Illich 1973: 11) describes Ivan Illich as follows:
The author is a man of rare courage, great aliveness, extraordinary erudition and brilliance, and fertile imaginativeness, whose whole thinking is based on his concern for man's unfolding - physically, spiritually and intellectually. The importance of his thoughts... lies in the fact that they have a liberating effect on the mind by showing new possibilities; they make the reader more alive because they open the door that leads out of the prison of routinized, sterile, preconceived notions.
Ivan Illich's critique of the process of institutionalization in education and his setting of this in the context of the desirability of more convivial relationships retains considerable power. As Finger and Asún (2001: 14-15) have argued, the 'forgotten Illich' offers considerable potential for those wanting to build educational forms that are more fully human, and communities that allow people to flourish. For Illich, and for Finger and Asún (2001: 177), 'De-institutionalization constitutes the challenge for learning our way out' of the current malaise." (http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-illic.htm)
Key Books to Read
Further reading and references:
Elias, J. L. (1976) Conscientization and Deschooling. Freire's and Illich's proposals for reshaping society, Philadelphia: Westminster Press. 178 pages. Useful review of Freire and Illich with a focus on what Elias sees as their central concepts - conscientization and deschooling.
Finger, M. And Asún, J. M. (2001) Adult Education at the Crossroads. Learning our way out, London: Zed Books. 207 pages. Helpful review of the current state of adult education thinking and policy. Useful (but flawed) introductions to key thinkers. The writers take the contribution of Ivan Illich as their starting point - and make some important points as a result.
Illich, Ivan (1973a) Deschooling Society, Harmondsworth: Penguin. 116 pages. (First published by Harper and Row 1971; now republished by Marion Boyars). Argues for the disestablishment of schooling. Chapters explore the phenomenology of schooling; the ritualization of progress; institutional spectrums; irrational consistencies; learning webs; and the rebirth of epimethean man.
Illich, Ivan (1973b) Celebration of Awareness. A call for institutional revolution, Harmondsworth Penguin. 156 pages. (First published by Harper and Row 1971; now republished by Marion Boyars). Fascinating collection of essays exploring violence; the eloquence of silence; the seamy side of charity; the powerless church; the futility of schooling; sexual power and political potency; a constitution for cultural revolution.
Illich, Ivan (1975a) Tools for Conviviality, London: Fontana. 125 pages. (First published 1973 by Harper and Row, now published by Marion Boyars). Argues for the building of societies in which modern technologies serve politically interrelated individuals rather managers. Such societies are 'convivial', they entail the use of responsibly limited tools.
Illich, Ivan (1976) After Deschooling, What?, London: Writers and Readers Publishing Co-operative. 55 pages. Includes a substantial opening essay 'Deschooling revisited' by Ian Lister.
Reimer, E. (1971) School is Dead. An essay on alternatives in education, Harmondsworth: Penguin. 176 pages. Highly readable analysis and positing of alternatives.
