Ivan Illich

Illich attacked the institutionalization of human needs — schooling, medicine, transport — arguing that beyond a threshold these institutions produce the opposite of what they promise. His work is foundational for convivial-tools and degrowth thought.

¶Core ideas

• Deschooling: compulsory schooling produces certified incapacity, not learning
• Conviviality: tools that enlarge personal autonomy rather than industrial dependence
• Counterproductivity: institutions past a threshold produce their opposite (sickening medicine, immobilizing transport)

¶Key works

• Deschooling Society (1971)
• Tools for Conviviality (1973)
• Medical Nemesis (1975)