Beyond Economics and Ecology: The Radical Thought of Ivan Illich [Paperback]

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.

Preface, by Jerry Brown, Governor of California
Introduction, by Sajay Samuel
The War against Subsistence, by Ivan Illich (from Shadow Work)
Shadow Work, by Ivan Illich (from Shadow Work)
Energy and Equity, by Ivan Illich
The Social Construction of Energy, by Ivan Illich

Governor Jerry Brown, in his Preface to this new collection of essays, quoted Ivan Illich who said equity would not come with economic growth. Illich pointed out that there is a point, in schooling, medical intervention, transportation, energy consumption and devices, beyond which we cease to benefit. His ideas were ahead of their time, and deserve to be studied going forwards into the future.

Sajay Samuel, Associate Professor of Accounting, Pennsylvania State University, is organising a conference to celebrate the life and works of Ivan Illich for August 2013. Professor Samuel networks extensively with academic communities who are interested in taking the ideas of Ivan Illich forward including the Eco-LOGY and NOMICS Left Forum conference in New York (June 2013) which is both activist and intellectual.

Once the book is available, these academic networks will use the text for their attendees and students.

This collection of essays by Ivan Illich will be introduced to the public at a major conference (Oakland: Aug 1-3 2013) hosted by the Governor of California, Jerry Brown. Two more conferences/meetings are planned during the upcoming year: one at Penn State University (before December 2013), and the other in Italy (around June 2014).