Ivan Illich

Ivan Illich (1926-2002) was born in Vienna. He studied chemistry in Florence and history in Salzburg, later becoming a cleric (he studied at the Gregorian University of the Vatican) and went to America (Puerto Rico) as a priest of the Catholic Church. In 1967, he severed his ties with the official church but continued to live in America. In 1961, he founded the Center for Intercultural Documentation (CIDOC) in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where seminars were organized with participants from all over the world. He was a fierce critic of modern industrial society through his books, among which the following stand out: "Deschooling Society," "Energy and Equity," "Tools for Conviviality," and "Needs of Man Today."