Reputed author Illich is best known for his sharp criticism of the deleterious character of expert-based institutions. These ranged from medicine and education to energy and transportation. The disempowering effects of the feminization of work and the narrowing down of gender struggles to a matter of individual economic and political equality were also there.

His book, Tools for Conviviality, summarised many of his critiques. They were set in the context of a political vision, namely the reconstruction of convivial modes of living. He termed it conviviality.

The book was self-consciously written as an epilogue to the industrial era. The conviction behind it was that in the advanced stage of mass production, any society produces its own destruction. His key concept was related to the industrial mode of production. He averred that industrial tools beyond a point would damage people and the environment.

The steady erosion of limits started in the seventeenth century with the harnessing of energy. Added to it was the progressive elimination of time and space, which gained force with the Industrial Revolution. It accomplished a complete restructuring of society in the twentieth century, aided by tools and technologies of specialized knowledge.