Thinker PractitionerClaim Cited
Robert Owen / New Lanark
At New Lanark, Robert Owen joined factory management to housing, schooling, retail, recreation, shorter hours, and character formation. Contemporary worker-petition evidence and later historical work document meaningful reforms, while private ownership, behavioral classification, partner conflict, resistance, and Owen's self-promotion make it an employer-led paternalist experiment rather than worker self-government or a causal test of welfare's effect on profit.
Can an industrial enterprise improve workers' lives and develop human capability without leaving the power to define improvement in one owner's hands?