Research
Counterfoil research
Illich’s name for public research into where a tool stops serving people, and for building tools that stay within those limits.
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Public interest research and counterfoil research
Nader’s PIRGs and Illich’s counterfoil research began in the same years, aimed at the same institutions. Illich read the consumer movement closely, and his objection still marks the difference.
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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…