Challenging the Cultural Hegemony of Industrial Society: Reinterpreting Illich’s Definition of Conviviality

Abstract

In his previous work, the author has concentrated on threats to the environment1,2 and the effects of vernacular in African design.3 In this essay, the emphasis is on a one-to-one comparison of industrially manufactured goods to African craft-produced equivalents. Citing both William Morris and Ivan Illich, the author argues for a reinterpretation of the latter’s concept of conviviality in a systemic effort to change the way we make things. Industrial production has resulted in a disaster of unrecycled and unrecyclable manufactured waste. It is thought that return to a more modest, individual approach to making might lessen the destructive tide.