Fri, 21 Jul 2017 10:23:32 +0000 By Dr Kashiwa Bulaya The social plans to serve the interests of the workers in their Utopian form were evolved, as a rule, not by the workers but by progressive thinkers in many cases belonging to other classes. The English Utopian socialist Robert Owen (1771-1858) was born into a craftsman’s family, but became a businessman before he turned twenty. From 1800 to 1829 he managed a cotton-spinning mill in New Lanark, Scotland, and did much to improve the conditions of work and life for the workers. His speculation on the result of his activities led Owen to the idea of reforming society. Owen evolved his Utopian system towards 1820s. In the next decades it was developed and commented upon both by Owen himself and by his followers. Owen’s concepts of human nature are the core of this system. Following the 18th-century French rationalists he presumed that man’s […]
