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Educing Ivan Illich

Reform, Contingency and Disestablishment

John Baldacchino author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Peter Lang Publishing Inc

Published:11th Jun '20

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Educing Ivan Illich cover

More than a book about Illich, this is a conversation with Illich’s work as we enter the third decade of the 21st century, just under twenty years after his passing, and almost fifty years since his Deschooling Society was first published. As Illich is beatified and demonised in equal measure, Educing Ivan Illich chooses to focus on the relationship between reform, contingency and disestablishment. As reform stands for a plurality of reiterations that seek effective forms of accordance, in our recognition of contingency we freely claim that even as we might recognize the presence of universality in how everything appears on a shared horizon, we are not denied the existence and dynamic reality of plural possibilities in their inherent contradictions. In this bargain of synchronicity, we find that disestablishing the reified universe by which we have, for so long, traded, staked and even lost our freedom and intelligence, is not just a desire but it becomes a must. Unlike other commentators of Illich’s work, Baldacchino argues that what is radical about Illich is not a freestanding concept of deschooling but in how, in disestablishing social life, he exits the walls of the polis by upholding tradition as a disruptive force. In such light Illich’s work is read in what remains overdue. Odd though it may sound, this is an urgent need for anyone interested in Illich’s unique and irreplaceable contribution. To that end, Educing Ivan Illich has far more to offer than is usually expected from a commentary on someone else’s work.

“In this scholarly reading of Ivan Illich, John Baldacchino conducts an astonishing feat; namely, to find ignored and minimized connections in Illich’s contribution to education. Educing Ivan Illich creates a new educational ‘language,’ with original viewpoints and perspectives, which expands our repertoire of thinking and our competence of acting—that we so desperately need when faced with educational situations. This volume should be read by anyone who has an interest not only in education but also in that which is good for humanity.”—Herner Saeverot, Professor of Education, Western Norway University
“Reading Illich’s work by relating the disestablishment of institutions to re-form and contingency, thereby implying radical freedom, this book situates Illich’s thought in a ‘Golgotha’ that is found outside the polis, the church and the market. It wonderfully shows the relevance of Illich’s topicality of conviviality and the relevance of the attention he pays to the quality of hiddenness and of the way Illich contests widespread concepts like ‘life’ and ‘responsibility’. In this way Educing Ivan Illich offers a really refreshing and fascinating entry into Illich’s thinking.”—Jan Masschelein, Professor, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

ISBN: 9781433176432

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 360g

186 pages