Convivial - literally, living together - is borrowed from the philosopher Ivan Illich, who used it to describe a world in which our tools and institutions enlarge human freedom and fellowship rather than diminishing them. It is the thread that runs through all we do.
Foundation for Convivial Living
The Foundation for Convivial Living (FCL) draws its name from 20th century Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich, a fierce critic of modern schooling, healthcare, and global industrialization. Throughout his life, Illich argued that bureaucratic institutions increasingly accomplish the opposite of their putative aims: schools codify ignorance, medicine robs us of our health, and machines render human lives, souls, aspirations into programmable cogs and levers.
Illich, who died in 2002, was prescient. This is where we find ourselves today.
In his 1973 book Tools for Conviviality, however, Illich laid out an alternative vision: a society in which individual autonomy, creativity, community, and local economies thrive. He celebrated communities in which neighbors feast together in pleasure and good cheer; children actively engage in their own learning and personal growth; and people enjoy vibrant good health, using tools for our own ends to build lives of meaning and purpose. It is a vision aligned with E.F. Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful, David Fleming’s Lean Logic, Kirkpatrick Sale’s Human Scale, and Wendell Berry’s “The Idea of a Local Economy.”
To that end, the Foundation for Convivial Living (FCL) seeks to support small projects dedicated to this big vision—vibrant, human-scale communities, in an increasingly dehumanized, and techno-bureaucratic world. We fund, for example, projects that help small farms and farmers deliver real food to their communities; education that empowers students to discover themselves as thinkers and fulfill their unique destiny; environmental projects that protect soil, water, air, and all living organisms; the preservation of heritage and history; and the creation of human-scale gathering spaces.
The projects we fund are diverse, but all share originality of thinking and creativity of spirit; a grassroots approach to accomplishing goals; and a bold, fearless (and, at times, iconoclastic) dedication to nourishing food, meaningful education, authentic connection, and personal autonomy in individual lives and local communities.
Current Projects
The Three Brothers Quest
The Three Brothers Quest (3BQ) is a podcast where three WWII-era brothers and host Rob Williams explore consciousness, meaning, and the implications of AI across nineteen episodes—It is supported by the Foundation for Convivial Living.
The Three Brothers Quest (3BQ) is a podcast where three WWII-era brothers and host Rob Williams explore consciousness, meaning, and the implications of AI across nineteen episodes—It is supported by the Foundation for Convivial Living.
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The Steward Archive
The Steward Archive is a pilot project digitizing hundreds of lectures from three decades at Schumacher College—featuring thinkers like Fritjof Capra, Lynn Margulis, Vandana Shiva, and Satish Kumar—to preserve them and, where desired, share them with the public.
The Steward Archive is a pilot project digitizing hundreds of lectures from three decades at Schumacher College—featuring thinkers like Fritjof Capra, Lynn Margulis, Vandana Shiva, and Satish Kumar—to preserve them and, where desired, share them with the public.
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Measuring the Health Impacts of Electromagnetic Radiation in Vermont
Monitoring electromagnetic radiation across Vermont, educating the public on its risks, and advancing responsible policy through research and organizing — led by VCE’s Alison Despathy with Foundation for Convivial Living funding.
Monitoring electromagnetic radiation across Vermont, educating the public on its risks, and advancing responsible policy through research and organizing — led by VCE’s Alison Despathy with Foundation for Convivial Living funding.
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