"To Hell With Good Intentions": Embracing the Power of Powerlessness

• In Event: Roundtable Session 52
  In Roundtable Session: Humans in Paradise: Coping With Educational Predicaments

Abstract

This paper explores the malady of “do-gooding” which Illich debunks in “to hell with good intentions.” Beyond Illich’s social critique, it reassesses his political, economic and “educational” solutions to end the interventions of professional “helping” – in all of its growing and menacing variations.

Authors

• Dana L. Stuchul, The Pennsylvania State University

• Madhu Suri Suri Prakash, The Pennsylvania State University