Ivan Illich

Schools have failed our individual needs, supporting false and misleading notions of progress and development fostered by the belief that ever-increasing production, consumption and profit are proper yardsticks for measuring the quality of human life. Our universities have become recruiting centres for the personnel of the consumer society, certifying citizens for service, while at the same time disposing of those judged unfit for the competitive rat race. In this bold and provocative book, Illich suggests some radical and exciting reforms for the education system.

A work of seminal importance, this book presents Ivan Illichs penetrating analysis of the industrial mode of production which characterises our contemporary world. The conviviality for which noted social philosopher Ivan Illich is arguing is one in which the individuals personal energies are under direct personal control and in which the use of tools is responsibly limited. This book claims out attention for the urgency of its appeal, the stunning clarity of its logic and the overwhelmingly human note that it sounds.

During the 1980s Ivan Illich added another dimension to his thought through the study of Medieval history. In the current volume he aims to demonstrate the extent to which the groundwork for the institutions that characterize our world today was laid in the twelfth century. The topics with which Illich engages center on health, housing, schooling, literacy, technology, peace and ethical values, his overiding concern being individual freedom realized in personal inter-dependence.

In five essays, followed by extensive notes and bibliographies, Ivan Illich embarks on a major historical and sociological analysis of modern mans economic existence. He traces and analyzes options which surpass the conventional political right-left and the technological soft-hard alternatives and presents the concept of the vernacular domain: "...to name those acts of competence, lust or concern that we want to defend from measurement by Chicago Boys or Socialist Commissars...the preparation of food and the shaping of language, childbirth and recreation, without implying either a privatized activity akin to the housework of modern women, a hobby or an irrational and primitive procedure." Illich deals provocatively with the controlling uses of language and science and the valuation of women and work. Drawing on unfamiliar historical sources, he lays bare the roots of much of the social ordering which affects industrial man: his own creation, but one which, at the same time, connives at his own oppression.

In this political essay, Ivan Illich calls for the right to useful unemployment: a positive, constructive, and even optimistic concept dealing with that activity by which people are useful to themselves and others outside the production of commodities for the market.

The break with the past, which has been described by others as the transition to a capitalist mode of production, I describe here as the transition from the aegis of gender to the regime of sex. Ivan Illich insists that we survey attitudes to male and female in both industrial society and its antecedents in order to recover a lost art of living. While under any reign of gender women might be subordinate, under any economic regime they are only second sex... both genders are stripped, and, neutered, the man ends up on top. He argues that only a truly radical scrutiny of scarcity, with special attention in this study to the sexes and society, past and present, can prevent an intensification of this grim predicament.

As a formidable critic of some of societys most cherished institutions, such as compulsory education and organised religion, Ivan Illich has attracted world attention. His commitment to a radical humanism against conventional institutions and esatablished ideas of social virtue make for compelling, and convincing, reading. This book brings together for the first time many of his lectures and articles bearing out Illichs invigorating challanges to the status quo.

In ABC... philosopher and cultural analyst Ivan Illich and medieval scholar and literary critic Barry Sanders have produced an original, meticulous and provocative study of the advent, spread and present decline of literacy. They explore he impact of the alphabet on fundamental thought processes and attitudes, on memory, on political groupings and religous and cultural expectations. Their examination of the present erosion of literacy in the new technological languages of newspeak and uniquack and they point out how new attitudes to language are altering our world view; our sense of self and of community.

Filósofo, sacerdote católico y pensador radical de la cultura, a Iván Illich se lo conoce sobre todo por escritos polémicos como La sociedad desescolarizada, La convivencialidad o Némesis médica, en los que elabora una critica de las instituciones contemporaneas en los ambitos de la educacion escolar, la medicina profesional, las relaciones laborales o el desarrollo socioeconomico. Este libro reune textos pertenecientes a la primera etapa de su trayectoria biografica e intelectual, rescatandolos de un olvido inmerecido.Los ensayos que componen La Iglesia sin poder son testimonio de la labor pastoral de Illich, que afronta problemas eminentemente practicos a la luz de unos pocos conceptos genuinamente teologicos: la oracion, la pobreza de espiritu y el Reino. Como señala Giorgio Agamben en su prologo, estamos ante "un pensamiento del Reino, de la especial presencia de este entre nosotros, ya cumplida y, sin embargo, todavia no".En el nucleo de la obra de Illich esta la oposicion a la naturaleza imperialista de las actividades misioneras auspiciadas por el Estado y la Iglesia. Su honda comprension de la historia de esta ultima, especialmente en el siglo XIII, aporto a su critica de la Iglesia y otras instituciones del siglo xx la perspectiva del historiador."Estos ensayos reunidos nos recuerdan la capacidad de Illich para sorprendernos y sacarnos de los surcos en los que se desliza facilmente nuestro pensamiento. Las ideas de Illich abren nuevas vias de comprension".Charles Taylor "Ivan Illich es uno de los pensadores mas interesantes del siglo xx, profundo e incapaz de ser encasillado. Su pensamiento y su espiritu siguen siendo sorprendentemente relevantes en el contexto cultural actual".William T. Cavanaugh"Esta coleccion de textos reunidos por las competentes manos de Valentina Borremans y Sajay Samuel, esta llena de sabiduria. Aborda de manera tajante las deficiencias de la Iglesia catolica con la que Illich seguia comprometido, y el complicado arraigo cultural y expansion de la Iglesia en el siglo xx".Jason W. Alvis

In this fascinating and controversial collection of essays Ivan Illich, Irving K Zola, John McKnight, Jonathan Caplan and Harley Shaiken challenge the power and mystery of professions. Why do we put so much resource into medicine, education and the law with so little apparent result? Why do we hold the professions in awe and allow them to set up what are in effect monopolies? By analyzing these questions and putting forward radical answers, the authors make an invaluable contribution to the public debate on the power of professions.

La primera edición en inglés de La sociedad desescolarizada de Iván Illich fue comercializada por la editorial Harper & Row en 1971 bajo el título Deschooling Society. En poco tiempo aparecieron

El derecho al desempleo útil sintetiza la denuncia de aspectos y mecanismos que siguen amenazando a nuestra sociedad sin que nos demos cuenta de ello, arrastrándola, en nombre de la libertad y de la democracia, hacia situaciones cada vez mas opresivas y destructivas. Las ideas que formula Ivan Illich en este libro son de una enorme pertinencia para desvelar tendencias y problemas actuales, sobre todo cuando los tiempos de crisis de los años setenta a los que se refiere el autor muestran marcados paralelismos con los tiempos actuales. Esta edicion cuenta con una valiosa introduccion de Jose Manuel Naredo que nos introduce en la pertinencia del pensamiento de Illich en la contemporaneidad.Ivan Illich (1926-2002) fue un pensador austriaco cuyo trabajo abarco numerosas disciplinas y tematicas contemporaneas. Con una capacidad inusitada para el analisis social y cultural, su trabajo hace especial referencia a las relaciones entre el individuo y la sociedad, asi como las perversiones de la ciencia y la tecnologia en la sociedad contemporanea.

Philosopher and social analyst Ivan Illich, one of the most influential thinkers of second half of this century, directs his attention to waterm the stuff of purity and the creative force of the imagination without which life in unthinkable. He deals with the dual nature of water, as life-giving material substance and as the wellspring of forml, on which are founded the most basic myths and cultural manifestations: water as cleanser, water as domestic necessity and water as a religious and spiritual force.

Energía y equidad habla de la crisis energética, del transporte y del reparto injusto de la riqueza, pero sobre todo de la manera en que la sociedad industrial moldea las relaciones sociales y la percepcion que tenemos de nuestro espacio y nuestro cuerpo, asi como desmenuza la adoracion tan extendida a la velocidad, a la ilusa aceleracion de la vida a traves de los medios tecnicos. Originariamente publicado en 1974, esta edicion cuenta con una introduccion de Alfonso Sanz, quien muestra hasta que punto las tesis que aqui se defienden siguen siendo vigentes, innovadoras y necesarias.

A junkie without access to his stash is in a state of crisis. The "energy crisis that exists intermittently when the flow of fuel from unstable countries is cut off or threatened, is a crisis in the same sense. When such a crisis is perceived in the western sphere, there are normally two solutions proposed: Relieve our dependence on foreign fuels by developing "ecologically friendly energy extraction technology, or send an army to pacify the fuel-rich region in question. Both of these paths, seemingly at odds with each other, take as fundamentally true a certain proposition, that in no circumstances should we use less energy than we already use. In this conception, all human problems must be solved by the impressment of still more "energy slaves to meet the expanding demand of human masters. The two solutions consist of securing the current source of the drug, or finding a different, more secure pusher. In this essay, Illich examines the question of whether or not humans need any more energy than is their natural birthright. Along the way he gives a startling analysis of the marginal disutility of tools. After a certain point, that is, more energy gives negative returns. For example, moving around causes loss of time proportional to the amount of energy which is poured into the transport system, so that the speed of the fastest traveller correlates inversely to the equality as well as freedom of the median traveller.

Las tesis de Iván Illich, en otro tiempo famosas en Iberoamérica y en el mundo, tal vezse han olvidado, pero nunca han sido minimizadas. Después de ellas, la sociedadindustrial - esa sociedad que se mantiene en pie gracias al embrutecimiento de susmiembros y al cinismo de sus dirigentes- perdio cualquier justificacion teorica. Peromas que debatir las tesis que la podrian perturbar, la ostra social se ha protegido de ellasaislandolas. No obstante, cuando los bienpensantes creian todavia en las promesas deldesarrollo, Illich mostro que esa brillante medalla tenia un reverso siniestro: el paso dela pobreza a la miseria, es decir, la dificultad creciente para los pobres de subsistir fuerade la esfera del mercado. Y sus libros vinieron a sacudir la sumision de cada uno aldogma de la escasez, fundamento de la economia moderna.Es tiempo de afirmar que la obra de Illlich no es una perla rara, sino una solidareflexion fundada en el sentido comun, pero hay que romper la ganga en la que se le haencerrado para liberar su inquietante contenido. En este primer volumen de sus obrasreunidas se recogen cinco titulos de este celebre pensador: Alternativas, La sociedaddesescolarizada, Energia y equidad, La convivencialidad (con su postfacio Desempleocreador) y Nemesis medica.

La lectura como una actividad moral, comprometida con necesidades espirituales de alcanzar la verdad y la sabiduría, motivó a Hugo de San Víctor (1096-1141), filósofo escolástico y teólogo místico; su Didascalicon es el primer libro sobre el arte de la lectura. En el viñedo del texto recoge los ensayos de Ivan Illich, dictados en distintas universidades, y son una reivindicación del libro como objeto esencial para la comprensión de la cultura.