Beyond Economics and Ecology: The Radical Thought of Ivan Illich

Illich's theories on the effectiveness of cars, air travel, and energy showed that industrial progress actually hampers the speed and effectiveness we have as people who were born capable of walking to our desired destinations. Roads, airports, stations, traffic jams, all take away the benefits of using complicated engineered methods of travel, and make our actual travel times longer.


About the Author
Ivan Illich (1926-2002) was an Austrian philosopher, Roman Catholic priest, and critic of technological society and the unacknowledged axioms of the modern mind. He was appointed vice-rector of the Catholic University in Puerto Rico in 1956. In 1961, Illich founded the Centro Intercultural de Documentacion (CIDOC) at Cuernavaca, Mexico, where he developed many of his ideas. He is the author of many books including Limits to Medicine, Deschooling Society, Disabling Professions, Celebration of Awareness, Tools for Conviviality, Energy and Equity, Shadow Work, Gender, H2O and the Waters of Forgetfulness and ABC: The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind.

Sajay Samuel is Associate Professor of Accounting at Pennsylvania State University, and lives in the USA.

Jerry Brown is Governor of the State of California, and lives in Oakland, CA.