Ivan Illich Libri

Un'appassionante e convincente apologia della bicicletta: della sua bellezza e saggezza, delle sue virtù come alternativa alla crescente carenza di energia e al soffocante inquinamento. Illich nota acutamente che la bicicletta e il veicolo a motore sono stati inventati dalla stessa generazione. Ma sono simboli di due opposti modi di usare il progresso moderno. La bicicletta permette a ognuno di controllare la propria energia metabolica (il trasporto di ogni grammo del proprio corpo su un chilometro percorso in dieci minuti costa all'uomo 0,75 calorie). Il veicolo a motore entra invece in concorrenza con tale energia.

Ivan Illich was a multifaceted thinker and priest whose work spanned education, social justice, and cultural critique. He established CIDOC in Mexico, a hub for his innovative ideas, and authored influential books addressing themes such as conviviality, the nature of work, and societal structures. His writings challenge conventional views on education and professional roles, advocating for a more equitable and aware society. Through his exploration of topics like gender and environmental issues, Illich's legacy continues to provoke thought and inspire change.

"The medical establishment has become a major threat to health." This is the opening statement and basic contention of Ivan Illich's searing social critique. In Limits to Medicine Ivan Illich has enlarged on this theme of disabling social services, schools, and transport, which have become, through over-industrialization, harmful to man. In this radical contribution to social thinking Illich decimates the myth of the magic of the medical profession.

"Each of the four essays printed here was written for a specific occasion and together comprise only the smallest selection from a larger corpus questioning commodity and energy-intensive economies. The essays are presented thematically instead of chronologically to offer a better view of the sweep of Illich's argument. In the first two, "War against Subsistence" and "Shadow Work," Illich reveals both the ruins on which the economy is built and the blindness of economics which cannot but fail to see it. The second two essays, "Energy and Equity" and "The Social Construction of Energy," unearth the nineteenth century invention and subsequent consequences of 'energy' thought of as the unseen cause of all 'work' whether done by steam engines, humans, or trees. The science of ecology relies on this assumption and, as Illich explained, unwittingly fuels the addiction to energy. The close dance of energy consumption and economic growth is characteristic of not just industrially geared societies. After all, energy consumption steadily increases even in so-called post-industrial societies, fueling the fortunes of Google and Apple no less than Wal-Mart"--

First edition. Study of "the advent, spread, and present decline of literary." xi, 166, 4 pages. cloth, dust jacket.. 8vo..

Deschooling Society (1971) is a critical discourse on education as practised in modern economies. It is a book that brought Ivan Illich to public attention. Full of detail on programs and concerns, the book gives examples of the ineffectual nature of institutionalized education. Illich posited self-directed education, supported by intentional social relations in fluid informal arrangements.

Ivan Illich argues for individual personal control over life, the tools and energy we use. A work of seminal importance. The conviviality for which noted social philosopher Ivan Illich is arguing is one in which the individual's personal energies are under direct personal control and in which the use of tools is responsibly limited. A work of seminal importance, this book claims our attention for the urgency of its appeal, the stunning clarity of its logic and the overwhelmingly human note that it sounds.

s/ A Call for Institutional RevolutionThe book consists of 12 essays on the following Vietnam & the resistance; the war on poverty; Latin America, Puerto Rico & immigration to the US mainland; Catholic Church problems; the Church's role in social change & development; the futility of schooling; the question of technical assistance & programs for 3rd world birth control. Each issue, while real & urgent in its own right, becomes a paradigm case which reveals a fundamental theoria/praxis of revolution, informed by a philosophical & theological discipline & sensibility which transcends, tho it cannot avoid, concrete issues in a given time & place. In each essay, Illich uses the method of radical doubt--not in a Cartesian but in a Socratic sense. He challenges the 'nature of some certainty' purveyed as truth. Hence he's dealing with 'the deception embodied in one of our institutions.' The most widespread & pernicious deception pretended as certainty he questions is the certainty of ideological liberals who assume that people make their livee by their institutions & therefore the institutions of N. American industrial civilization can & should be translated to the 3rd world for its own especially the institutions of schooling & technical assistance designed to help a given nation emulate the affluence of the US.--Richard A. Journal of the American Academy of Religion (edited)

Exploring Medieval history in the 1980s, Ivan Illich reveals how foundational institutions of contemporary society were established in the twelfth century. The book delves into various themes, including health, housing, education, language, literacy, peace, and ethics, offering a critical analysis of their historical development and impact on modern life.