Islands of Conviviality – Reading Circle
The Islands of Conviviality – Reading Circle is part of an open-ended exploration and discussion process into the ideas of conviviality, autonomy, self-organised learning and collective life, facilitated by the Forest University (Šumski), WORKOVERTIME, ISSA, and other partners within the Islands of conviviality project (for more info, see below). The Reading Circle is a space for collective thinking and discussion, where we explore texts that help us reimagine ways of living, learning, and organizing counter to the hegemonic Mainland or One World thought.
How will the Reading Circle work?
We are hosting small intimate online reading groups starting in Spring 2025. These will meet every three weeks or so, initially for four sessions. Each session will focus on a central theme, drawing from texts by Ivan Illich and others who expand, challenge, or reimagine his ideas in a contemporary context. The four themes that we’ll explore are linked below. The overall reading list and further materials are also below, as we’re hoping that this will allow others to join as they wish, how they want, and with whomever else they please.
Reading Circle(s)
If you’re curious about what conviviality could mean today—how it relates to ecology, alternative economies, pedagogy, and political life—join us. No expertise is required, only a willingness to read, listen, and think together. You do not need to be an ‘expert’ in any of this, – no one really is, and this is the joy of convivial learning—all you need is a willingness and time to read, listen, meet and think together.
When will we meet?
April 8 – Session 1: Radical Autonomy & Relationality, 2–4PM (CET), online
https://fhnw.zoom.us/j/65767996365?pwd=nAuN9N19XolAtl00bbhFabRsOrb2rZ.1
April 29 – Session 2: Island Sustainabilities & Energetic Autonomies, 2–4PM (CET), online
https://fhnw.zoom.us/j/69575673337?pwd=ErSrSrHfYbaZVDNSgHzRDw8EqV5vW4.1
May 27 – Session 3: Elemental Convivialities & Thinking-Feeling with the Water, 2–4PM (CET), online
https://fhnw.zoom.us/j/68986038984?pwd=NPzUpIdkuMdJTcabe1yuM4Wlo9Sj36.1
June 17 – Session 4: Convivial Education & Knowledge Sharing, 2–4PM (CET), online
https://fhnw.zoom.us/j/63278492347?pwd=wmlKFtp9tWu7cfmTIIxY6aK1XRhc6N.1
How to get involved?
If any of this interests you, please use the following form to register your interest by the 30th of March: https://opnform.com/forms/my-form-0uxc00
We will let you know how we’d like to organise things on April 1st, 2025. Note that if a lot of people sign up, we are considering helping to facilitate smaller federated reading circles and groups to keep individual groups more intimate. This means we may share your contact details with others who have expressed interest; if that’s not okay with you, please let us know.
Federated Reading Circles
We all know that conviviality happens in many places, in many ways (maybe everywhere all the time!). We also know that there may be more of us interested in all this than what a genuine and intimate online discussion can host. We want to invite others who wish to and can start parallel reading groups in their contexts and languages—whether at a kitchen table, a community space, an art collective, or an online forum. We encourage and invite parallel archipelagic processes, and you should let us know about them. As mentioned above, if we have an abundance of interest, we’ll help form such groups as needed.
Feel free to use the texts and resources we have selected below or make modifications that suit your group and context. Through the months, we can give feedback on our notes from the sessions, and you could, if you like, do the same at your own pace. In any case, we’d love to hear from you and would like to create a moment later in the year when different reading circles can share reflections, insights, and ideas, all together. You can let us know by sending email to: sumski.uni@gmail.com.
Resources
SESSION 1 (zip file with all the texts with the abstracts / descriptions)
SESSION 2 (zip file with all the texts with the abstracts / descriptions)
SESSION 3 (zip file with all the texts with the abstracts / descriptions)
SESSION 4 (zip file with all the texts with the abstracts / descriptions)
These resources are a starting point, but we expect them to evolve as the reading circle unfolds. We welcome additions and changes based on our collective discussions and discoveries.
More about Islands of conviviality project
Islands of Conviviality is a collaborative research and practice initiative that explores autonomy, relationality, and ecological interdependence through constellations and gatherings, itineraries, and interventions. Inspired by the early reflections on conviviality and islands by Ivan Illich, who, if he was still alive would have turned 100 in 2026, the project revisits these origins to consider how literal, once-upon-a-time and conceptual island spaces can offer inspiring, exciting and affirmative ways of thinking and living together.
Throughout 2025, Islands of Conviviality will host events that bring together scholars, artists, designers, and local communities for discussion, fieldwork, and artistic experimentation. These encounters will critically explore Illich’s call for non-extractive, life-affirming systems and institutions which foster autonomous capacities. They will also question how such principles might be extended beyond actual islands to other forms of archipelagic or peripheral thinking, fo example, spaces of retreat and resistance, networks of solidarity and inter:dependece, and practices that move between dispersion and being in relation.
If you are interested in joining, helping or supporting other aspects of the Islands of Conviviality project, please contact us at issa@issa-school.org and/or ja@jamieallen.com.
Partners