Deschooling Society, published in 1971 by Ivan Illich, remains one of the most challenging books ever written about education. Yet despite its title, it is not really a book about schools. It is a book about how modern industrial societies organise knowledge, power and dependence.
More than fifty years after it was written, many of Illich’s ideas appear surprisingly relevant to the emerging localist movement and to the realities of a shrinking economy.
Illich argued that modern societies had become dominated by institutions. Schools, hospitals, welfare systems, transport systems and many other large organisations increasingly took over functions that had once been carried out by families, communities and individuals. As these institutions expanded, people gradually lost the confidence and ability to organise many aspects of life for themselves.
His criticism of schooling was therefore part of a much wider criticism of industrial society.
According to Illich, schools had become less concerned with learning and more concerned with certification. The possession of qualifications became more important than the possession of knowledge. People increasingly came to believe that learning could occur only within formal institutions and under the supervision of approved professionals.
Illich questioned this assumption.
He believed that people learn continuously throughout life through experience, observation, work, conversation and participation in their communities. A child helping in a workshop, a gardener teaching neighbours, an elderly resident sharing local history, or a farmer explaining soil management are all forms of education. In many cases they may be more practical and more relevant than classroom instruction.
This idea has obvious parallels with localism.
Localism places great value on local knowledge. Every locality possesses skills and understanding that are often overlooked by national systems. Retired craftsmen, gardeners, builders, farmers, cooks, engineers and volunteers hold enormous amounts of practical knowledge. Much of this knowledge is difficult to capture in textbooks but can be passed directly from person to person.
Industrial society tends to replace these local knowledge networks with centralised systems. Expertise becomes concentrated in institutions. Learning becomes standardised. Local variation is discouraged.
Illich saw this as a loss rather than a gain.
One of his most important ideas was the creation of what he called “learning webs”. Today, we might describe these as networks through which people can find others willing to teach and learn. Long before the internet existed, Illich imagined systems that would connect people according to their interests and skills rather than according to age, examination requirements or institutional structures.
Modern technology makes such networks far more practical than they were in 1971.
A localist society could make extensive use of learning webs. A person wanting to learn food preservation could be connected with an experienced neighbour. Someone interested in repairing bicycles could learn directly from a local mechanic. Young people could acquire practical skills from local producers and artisans. Knowledge would flow through the community rather than being confined to formal institutions.
This does not mean abandoning schools entirely.
One weakness in some interpretations of Illich is the assumption that all formal education should disappear. In practice, many forms of advanced knowledge require structured learning. Medicine, engineering, science and other specialised disciplines depend upon rigorous education and standards.
Localism itself does not require the abolition of national educational institutions. Just as localism recognises the continuing need for national railways, specialist hospitals and telecommunications systems, it can also recognise the need for universities and professional training.
The question is not whether schools should exist.
The question is whether schools should be the only recognised path to learning.
Here Illich’s criticism remains powerful.
Many people leave formal education believing they are no longer learners. Yet some of the most valuable learning occurs throughout adult life. Local food production, home maintenance, renewable energy systems, woodland management, community care and countless other practical activities require ongoing learning outside formal institutions.
A shrinking economy may make these forms of learning increasingly important.
Industrial growth allowed societies to become highly specialised. As long as energy was abundant and economic growth continued, individuals could rely upon distant experts to solve most problems. But if economic contraction becomes a long-term reality, communities may need to recover many practical skills that have been lost.
Local food production, repair skills, building maintenance, water management and local enterprise all depend upon knowledge that is often acquired informally rather than through formal qualifications.
In this sense, Deschooling Society may be viewed as a handbook for cultural resilience.
Illich was asking how people could become less dependent upon large institutions and more capable of organising their own lives. That question sits at the heart of localism.
His vision was not anti-learning. Quite the opposite. He wanted learning to become more widespread, more accessible and more integrated into everyday life. He wanted knowledge to circulate freely through communities rather than being monopolised by institutions.
Many localists would recognise this ambition immediately.
The local economy of the future may depend as much upon the sharing of knowledge as upon the production of food or energy. Communities that can teach themselves, adapt themselves and pass skills between generations will be more resilient than communities that depend entirely upon distant systems.
For that reason, Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society deserves to be read not simply as a critique of education but as an early exploration of ideas that later became central to localism.
Its message is that learning belongs to people, not institutions. In an age of economic uncertainty and increasing dependence upon large systems, that message may be more relevant today than when it was first written.
In relation to localism, Deschooling Society is not a blueprint but a highly compatible companion. It supports the localist belief that communities possess valuable knowledge and that many essential skills can be learned and shared locally. Where localism differs from some interpretations of Illich is that localism would generally retain national institutions where they remain genuinely necessary, while seeking to rebuild local capability wherever possible.