New Views of Society

Robert Owen was one of the most significant thinkers and social innovators of the nineteenth century. Widely recognised as the 'father of co-operation' and an exemplary industrialist and educational reformer for his pioneering work while managing the New Lanark Mill in Scotland. He is less well known for his work on the development of time-based currencies, trades unionism and experiments in community living.

One hundred and fifty years after Owen's death, his ideas have a remarkable contemporary resonance, whether it be in the development of LETS schemes, eco-villages and 'fairrade', or the emergence of new social movements challenging and offering alternatives to a politial and economic system built on global capitalism. This book explores these connections through a series of chapters written by leading current practitioners in each of the fields of endeavour that Owen was concerned with and tries to draw lessons from his experience for social innovators of the future.

In an era when the social and environmental consequences of our capitalist economic system are looking increasingly perilous, and when the financial system no longer inspires confidence, Robert Owen's creative contribution can help us to inspire an alternative economic paradigm.