Robert Owen, utopian socialism and social transformation

This paper critically scrutinizes accounts of Robert Owen’s life and works focusing on his purported “utopianism” and his supposedly deficient “socialism.” It suggests that such positions have relied on questionable assertions about the potential of particular modes of social transformation, and a failure to acknowledge the distinction Owen makes between the practical arrangements necessary to begin the process of transformation, and those arrangements that would ultimately prevail in “the new moral world.” It also argues that such accounts may contribute to the development of fatalistic narratives surrounding cooperative values and projects involving strategic compromise. In response, the paper reconsiders the significance of Owen through the lens of a “strategic presentism” that considers how Owen’s ideas can be thought of as significant contributions to theorizing social transformation.