Extending Illich's Call for Conviviality: Biocultural Diversity in Urban School Gardens

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 29
  In Roundtable Session: Ivan Illich, Conviviality, and Deschooling Society: Urban Gardening, the Maker Movement, and Hospitality in Peer Tutoring

Abstract

This paper builds on Illich’s framework of conviviality to address the urgency of climate change especially as it affects our connection with food in urban areas. With tens of thousands of urban school gardens, that have sprouted across the globe for learning, where children, youth, and adults are connected to their bodies and soils by growing, harvesting, and cooking, this paper makes the case that in many of these gardens Illichian convivial spaces are manifested. However, we need to extend Illichian conviviality to address “biocultural” diversity. Examples from site visits to school gardens in urban school districts are shared.

Author

• Dilafruz R. Williams, Portland State University