Robert Owen 1771–1858

Abstract

If citizenship is about the freedom and ability to join in social activities in ways that preserve dignity and self-respect then the opportunity for work that is socially valued is fundamentally important. It is through their labour that most people provide for themselves and their families and contribute to the national economy, so it is a source of both individual satisfaction and collective prosperity. For the fortunate it is also intrinsically interesting and enjoyable. The overwhelming significance of work for individual welfare and for society and, hence, its central place in discussions about citizenship are evident in the long tradition of political, economic and philanthropic literature to do with employment and unemployment. In the early nineteenth century the social consequences of a rapidly growing and largely unregulated industrial economy attracted the attention of a multitude of writers shocked by the working and living conditions associated with the use of increasingly elaborate industrial machines which turned factory labour into a monotonous routine, and by the acute poverty and demoralisation of the men whom they displaced.

No people or population can be good, intelligent, or happy, except by a rational and natural education and useful employment or occupation.

(The Life of Robert Owen)