Convivial Society Enables People to Shape Their Own Environment
A Convivial society is one in which people (1) have the greatest freedom and opportunity to perform satisfying, imaginative, and independent work to enrich their environment of their own vision. (2) by the means of Convivial Tools. This is the concept from Tools for Conviviality (1973) by Ivan Illich to counteract the industrial value based society.
(This does not mean that people should provide everything for themselves. Rather, there must be a balance between the production of necessary goods and services through industrial tools and the enrichment of life through convivial tools.)
From (1), Illich's idea of a convivial society is based on one important assumption: human happiness intrinsically depends on creative, self-directed work that satisfies both one's own needs and the needs of others, rather than on consumption. People need the freedom to give shape to their own vision in the world. They need self-defined work. And to do that, they need Convivial Tools.
The role of society, then, is to provide and protect the freedom to use such tools.
- Society must collectively define and guide the development of such tools rather than determine production goals. One way to achieve this is by enforcing negative design criteria for tools.
- Society must guarantee every member the broadest possible and free access to such tools.
- Society must increase the contribution of autonomous individuals to the overall effectiveness of the production system. This contrast to industrial society, where as machine power increases, the role of people deduce to just consumers.
- Society must permit and protect a lifestyle and political system that prioritizes the protection, maximum use, and enjoyment of personal energy under personal control.
The three core values of a convivial society are survival, justice, and self-defined work.
Could this link to the The Three Attractors by Bruno Latour?
References
Such a society, in which modern technologies serve politically interrelated individuals rather than managers, I will call "convivial".