Robert Owen and Development Practice

(Richard Warner)

There is but one mode by which man can possess in perpetuity all the happiness which his nature is capable of enjoying, that is by union and cooperation of ALL for the benefit of EACH. (Owen R. 1830, p. 42) Robert Owen (1771-1758) is a towering figure in the history of development practice and his activity and writings are considered touchstones of tradition. Whilst Owen made significant contributions to both social service and community development traditions of social welfare, this piece will focus on his contribution to development practice; a mode of work which he gravitated to increasingly over his lifetime. The following brief article will situate Owen in a historical context, consider his journey from industrialist to activist, attempt to unearth his guiding principles and consider his relevance to us today. Social conditions in the early period of industrial revolution in England require an imaginative leap to inhabit. Consider that the normal safety nets do not apply. There are few labour laws, no public health or education, no pensions, nor unemployment benefits. This is a world which is rapidly changing from an agricultural to an industrial base and where old patterns of living are being uprooted and replaced. Characteristic of many industries of the time are: subsistence wages, child labour, dangerous working conditions and fourteen hour days. This was the environment in which Robert Owen emerged. Owen's life traces a remarkable transition from successful industrialist, to radical philanthropist and onwards, to social and community activist. His turn toward philanthropy and social service began when he became manager of a large cotton factory in New Lanark, Scotland. Here he combined an astute business mind with developing ideas on the formation of human character and instituted a comprehensive program of changes which benefited the lives of his workers. Reforms at New Lanark included: a rejection of child labour, the establishment of the first infant schools in England, public health care and improved working and living conditions for employees. The mills at New Lanark became a minor marvel of the age and attracted the interest and approbation of employees as well as many prominent visitors who were interested in seeing the success of Owens social engineering first hand. Although Owen's work at new Lanark could be characterised as paternalistic (in the best sense of the term) it was here that the seeds of his development work were sown and where he articulated his first principles. The most fundamental of these is stated at the head of his influential set of essays A New View of Society: Any general character, from the best to the worst, from the most ignorant to the most enlightened, may be given to any community, even to the world at large, by the application of the proper means; which... are to a great extent under the influence of those who have influence in the affairs of men (Owen, R. 1813, p. 20).
Cotton Mills at New Lanark

This insight that "human character is formed for and not by the individual" (Owen, R. 1858, p.6) and that environment could be altered to benefit human development might appear simplistic to us today, but for Owen it was revolutionary in both its implications and call to action. The moral and practical implications were to seek to change the systems that created poverty, disease, vice and crime and not to seek to blame any individual for those evils with which they were afflicted (Owen, R. 1813). And whilst not all development practitioners would necessarily agree with the deterministic form of Owens principle, its essence, in terms of a critical questioning of social arrangements, vis--vis human development; is arguably that of orthodoxy. It was not until Owen's later career of social activism and after being frustrated in his attempts at top-down social change, that we see a growing recognition of the poor and working class as a potential power base and the emergence of discernibly developmental methods. The first of these was a series of intentional community experiments. Here Owen proposed and established communities of Unity and Cooperation or self-supporting industrial and agricultural communities, which would be based on principles of economic and social cooperation, as opposed to the principle of pecuniary gain of the manufacturing industry (Owen R. 1817, p.15). The community vision was holistic and based on economic, educational, social and gender equality. These idealistic communities it was hoped, would expand in number, enrich society and usher in of a new moral world. Whilst the community experiments, such as the American community of New Harmony (established in 1825) all failed within a few years of establishment, the principle and practices by which they operated, provided inspiration to later more successful communitarian endeavors. Owen returned to England in 1827 after the failure of New Harmony. He was however welcomed back as a hero and surprised to find, that in his absence he had become the father of movement of working class agitators and Owenites who took his writings on New Lanark as inspiration. Owen was reportedly dismissive of these movements at first, declaring that their buying and selling formed no part of his grand cooperative scheme (Cole, M. 1971 p. 211) but upon being offered positions of leadership, he soon became convinced they could help society move toward the new moral order he was seeking. The movements inspired by Owen include: the early Co-operative movement, based on the principle of economic and social cooperation to reduce the cost of goods; equitable labour exchanges, which Owen himself founded and which were based on the principle that labour is the source of value; and early worker movements which sought to create a change in working conditions through the principle of union and cooperation. Whilst these pioneering working class movements achieved little lasting success under Owens leadership, they did provide foundational principles and methods which were taken up by later more successful groups. Owens contribution to modern community development is as an intellectual forebear and inspiration to communitarian, co-operative and mutual movements which can all trace their development back to him. His contribution to development practice is undoubtedly significant, but would be significantly diminished without the many lesser names and ordinary people, who found inspiration in the ideas he worked out at New Lanark and helped to mature them. Owens relevance for modern development work is that we are again in a time where pecuniary gain eclipses other social agendas, where there is an
Coop Tea Mural from the wall of the Rochdale Pioneers Co-op Shop in Rochdale

widening gap between the poor and wealthy and where the independence and vibrancy of community owned processes are at risk. Owens principles and methods offer robust alternatives to communities and development workers seeking to lock horns with current practice dilemmas. Robert Owen reportedly had the personal characteristics of genuineness and kindness which won over people from all walks of life. So it seems appropriate to bookend this short piece with a statement of Owens personal approach to development practice, one which we would do well to learn from: Happiness of self; clearly understood and uniformly practiced ... can only be attained by conduct that must promote the happiness of the community (Owen, R. 1813, p. 25). Bibliography Cole, M. Owens Mind and Methods, in Pollard, P and Salt, J. (Ed.), Robert Owen: Prophet of the Poor: Essays in Honour of the Two Hundredth Anniversary of his Birth London: Macmillan, 1971. Owen, R. Lectures on an entire new state of society: comprehending analysis of British society, relative to the production and distribution of wealth, the formation of character, and government, domestic and foreign. London: J. Brooks, 1830. Owen, R. A New View of Society, Oxford: University of Oxford Text Archive, 1813. Owen, R. Supplementary Appendix to the Life of Robert Owen. London: Effingham and Wilson, 1858. Owen, R. Observations on the Effect of the Manufacturing System: With Hints for the Improvement of Those Parts of it Which are Most Injurious to Health and Morals (2nd Edition), London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1817.

The Rochdale Pioneers found inspiration in Owen and made a lasting success of his cooperative experiments.