Counterfoil

Research

Conviviality

Illich’s term for tools people can use freely, for purposes they choose, without being managed by them.

  • Tools or systems?

    This catalogue assumes that its subjects are tools and that someone can stand outside them.

  • What is “counterfoil research?”

    Ivan Illich used this phrase in four books between 1971 and 1974 but never fully defined it. Read together with the questions this site starts from, Illich’s remarks about counterfoil research concern the public study of how tools and technological…

  • No mother tongue

    Illich grew up with several living languages and said he had no mother tongue. His distinction between learned vernacular speech and a taught, standard language shapes how we understand literacy.