Tools For Conviviality
Ivan Illich • 1973
In Short
A social philosopher makes a radical critique of institutions in Western society and offers an alternative founded in conviviality.
In Depth
Who's the author?
Ivan Illich was a social philosopher and also worked as a Catholic parish priest in New York. He is known for his radical critique of institutions in Western society, spanning education, healthcare, transportation, and economic development. He founded the Centro Intercultural de Documentación (CIDOC) in Mexico, where he developed many of his ideas.
What's the intention?
The book is more of an extended essay with a pointed argument to make. Illich is warning against what he sees as an impending crisis caused by the industrialization of institutions, including education, medicine, transportation, social work, and more. He hopes to convince the reader of the need for an alternative society not based on growth, but on what he calls conviviality, or individual freedom and creative intercourse between people.
Who's it for?
Reading the book, you get the sense that Illich is speaking to his fellow citizen, and not the institutions that he is criticizing. He hopes to plant a seed in others that might bloom into meaningful change in societal structure. The text speaks well to any designer who is engaged in social change or struggles with the role of design in corporate and institutional structures.
So what?
Illich’s message is a good provocation. As a designer, it makes you question some of the foundations your work is contributing to in a larger sense. Some of Illich’s extreme stances make it hard to accept everything he says wholeheartedly, but I think his basic petition for systems and tools that empower individuals is a necessary counterweight for many of the present conditions in the designed world.
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On Two Watersheds
Technology • Systems Design • Sustainability
Any industrialized institution will go through two watershed moments. At first, its progress provides clear and substantial benefits to society. But second, its overdevelopment begins to run counter to its original goal and in fact becomes destructive to society.
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On Conviviality
Human-centeredness • Making
Conviviality is a term to describe individual freedom through creative intercourse with others and the environment. It is offered as a counter to a philosophy of industrial productivity.
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On Our Relationship to Our Tools
Technology • Human-centeredness • Making
Tools (in the broad sense of purposely shaped systems and objects) are vital to social relationships and the way we understand the world. Design should take measures to protect our access to tools.