Technology and Experience: revisiting Ivan Illich's tools for conviviality
Throughout the pandemic, scholars, administrators, and developers have been asking: which tools and practices from emergency education during the coronavirus pandemic may become part of established practice? Related to this question is how scholars have responded to the present event by turning to past pedagogies to inform current practices. I focus on the tools for conviviality initiated by Ivan Illich in Deschooling Society (1970); defined by Illich in Tools for Conviviality (1973); and refined by Illich in Medical Nemesis (1975). There is renewed interest in Illich as part of contemporary discussions of emancipatory education. I historicise Illich’s tools for conviviality to make the point that remote learning and homeschooling during the pandemic has brought marginal pedagogies into mainstream focus. I divide this post into three parts: first, a brief explanation of Illich’s core idea of tools for conviviality using Deschooling Society as my primary text; second, critical