Journal of Co-operative Studies 56(3), 13-24

Abstract

What’s the secret of British co-operation’s success? This essay argues that one answer to that question is: adult education. Drawing from cultural hegemony theory and historical literature, it shows that Robert Owen’s revolutionary philosophy of education fired many campaigns and institutional innovations: to dispel “false beliefs”; propagate a “rational social system”; and advance collective aspirations for “self-improvement”. Both an educational visionary and social reformer, Owen’s passion for “propagandist action” thus laid unique discursive foundations for Owenist-socialism’s enduring legacy of popular education. It also drove British co-operation’s emergent counter-hegemony to the investor-owned firm through three overlapping waves: early Owenism’s founding-prophetic tradition, which subordinated co-operative shops to “villages of co-operation”; the local-democratic pedagogy that subsequently emerged around those shops; and the movement-spanning professionalism that defines Britain’s contemporary educational institutions. Accounting for this sustained tradition of educational activism thus helps explain British co-operation’s durability. For example, its robust and wide-ranging present-day educational innovations such as the Co-operative College, Co-operative News, or the Co-operative Party are artefacts of this distinctive legacy. Lessons from the British experience thus illustrate the potential to build on adult education’s evolving promise, with significant conceptual and strategic implications beyond British shores.

References

Carbery, T. F. (1969). Consumers in politics. Manchester University Press.

Claeys, G. (2011). Robert Owen and some later socialists. In N. Thompson & C. Williams (Eds.), Robert Owen and his legacy (pp. 33–53). University of Wales Press.

Cole, G. D. H. (1930). The life of Robert Owen. Macmillan.

Co-operative Heritage Trust. (2023). About us. https://www.co-operativeheritage.coop/

Co-operative News. (2020). Annual Report: Co-op News annual report for the year to 29 February 2020. https://www.thenews.coop/wp-content/uploads/Annual-Report-2020_final.pdf

Co-operative Party. (2022). About. https://party.coop/about/

Desroche, H. (1971). Images and echoes of Owenism in nineteenth-century France. In S. Pollard & J. Salt (Eds.), Robert Owen: Prophet of the poor (pp. 239–284). Macmillan.

Diamantopoulos, M. (2015). Education for economic action: The case of the Canadian co-operative movement. In D. Hepting & P. Elliott (Eds.), Free Knowledge (pp. 69-100). University of Regina Press.

Diamantopoulos, M. (2021). Holyoake’s ghost: Remembering press activism’s role in the invention, cultural empowerment, and social mobilisation of Britain’s co-operative movement, 1821-1871. Journal of Co-operative Studies, 54(3), 7-19.

Diamantopoulos, M. (2022a). Bridging co-operation’s communication gap: The Statement on the Co‑operative Identity, the sociology of co-operative education’s shifting terrain, and the problem of public opinion. Journal of Co-operative Organization and Management, 10(1), 100161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcom.2021.100161

Diamantopoulos, M. (2022b). The art of agitation: The 19th century press activism of George Jacob Holyoake. Journal of Alternative and Community Media, 7(1), 23–44. https://doi.org/10.1386/jacm_00103_1

Donnachie, I. (2011). Robert Owen. Reputations and burning issues. In N. Thompson & C. Williams (Eds.), Robert Owen and his legacy (pp. 13-31). University of Wales Press.

Durr, A. (2017). William King of Brighton: Co-operation’s prophet? In S. Yeo (Ed.). New views of co‑operation (pp. 10–26). Routledge.

Escott, M. (2011). Robert Owen as a British politician and parliamentarian. In N. Thompson & C. Williams (Eds.), Robert Owen and his legacy (pp. 129–154). University of Wales Press.

Fairbairn, B. (1994). The meaning of Rochdale. Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, University of Saskatchewan.

Gramsci, A. (1977). Selections from political writing 1910-1920 (Q. Hoare, Ed.; J. Mathews, Trans.). Lawrence & Wishart.

Grant, P. (2016). Our agencies: Persuasion and the value of a concept to mainstreaming co-operation. In A. Webster, L. Shaw, & R. Vorberg-Rugh (Eds.), Mainstreaming co-operation: An alternative for the twenty-first century? (pp. 31–45). Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526100993.00008

Gurney, P. (1999). Labor’s great arch: Co-operation and cultural revolution in Britain, 1795-1926. In E. Furlough & C. Strikwerda (Eds.), Consumers against capitalism? Consumer co-operation in Europe, North America, and Japan, 1840-1990. Rowman & Littlefield.

Gurney, P. (2017). George Jacob Holyoake: Socialism, association and co-operation in nineteenth century England. In S. Yeo (Ed.). New views on co-operation (pp. 52–72). Routledge.

Harrison, J. F. C. (1967). “The Steam Engine of the New Moral World”: Owenism and Education, 1817‑1829. Journal of British Studies, 6(2), 76–98. https://doi.org/10.1086/385537

Harrison, J. F. C. (1969). Robert Owen and the Owenites in Britain and America: The quest for the New Moral World. Routledge.

Harrison, J. F. C. (1984). The common people: A history from the Norman Conquest to the present. Fontana.

Hoare, G., & Sperber, N. (2015). An introduction to Antonio Gramsci: His life, thought and legacy. Bloomsbury.

Hollis, P. (1970). The pauper press: A study in working-class radicalism of the 1830s. Oxford University Press.

Holyoake, G. J. (1898). Essentials of co-operative education. Labour Association for Promoting Co‑operative Production.

Holyoake, G. J. (1906). Sixty years of an agitator’s life (Vol. 1). Unwin.

Holyoake, G. J. (1908). The history of co-operation (Vol. 1). Unwin.

Holyoake, G. J. (2016). The history of the Rochdale Pioneers. Routledge (Original work published 1893). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315468853

Kelly, T. (1962). A history of adult education in Great Britain. Liverpool University Press.

Mangan, A. (2021). Hidden in plain sight: How UK national newspapers report on co-operatives. Journal of Co-operative Studies, 54(3), 39–50.

McCabe, J. (1922). George Jacob Holyoake. Watts & Co.

Miliband, R. (1954). The politics of Robert Owen. Journal of the History of Ideas, 15(2), 233–245. https://doi.org/10.2307/2707769

Miliband, R. (1969). The state in capitalist society. Basic Books.

Noble, M. & Ross, C. (2020). Bundling co-operative education: Towards a theory of co-operative learning. Journal of Co-operative Studies, 53(3), 25-29.

O’Hagan, F. (2011). Robert Owen and education. In N. Thompson & C. Williams (Eds.), Robert Owen and his legacy (pp. 71-90). University of Wales Press.

Owen, R. (1993a). A new view of society. In G. Claeys (Ed.). Selected works of Robert Owen. Volume 1 (pp. 23-100). Pickering and Chatto. (Original work published 1818).

Owen, R. (1993b). Report to the committee of the association for the relief of the manufacturing and labouring poor. In G. Claeys (Ed.). Selected works of Robert Owen. Volume 1 (pp. 143-155). Pickering and Chatto.(Original work published 1817).

Owen, R. (1993c). Report to the county of Lanark. In G. Claeys (Ed.). Selected works of Robert Owen.Volume 1 (pp. 287-332). Pickering and Chatto. (Original work published 1821).

Pankhurst, R. (1991). William Thompson (1775-1833): Pioneer socialist. Pluto.

Podmore, F. (1924). Robert Owen: A biography. Appleton.

Powell, G. (2011). Robert Owen and ‘the greatest discovery ever made by man’. In N. Thompson & C. Williams (Eds.), Robert Owen and his legacy (pp. 175–196). University of Wales Press.

Shaw, L. (2011). International perspectives on co-operative education. In A. Webster, A. Brown, D. Stewart, J. K. Walton, & L. Shaw (Eds.), The hidden alternative: Co-operative values, past, present and future (pp. 59–77). Manchester University Press.

Silver, H. (1971). Owen’s reputation as an educationist. In S. Pollard & J. Salt (Eds.), Robert Owen, prophet of the poor: Essays in honour of the two-hundredth anniversary of his birth (pp. 65–83). Macmillan.

Thompson, E. P. (2016). The making of the English working class. Penguin.

Tsuzuki, C. (1971). Robert Owen and revolutionary politics. In S. Pollard & J. Salt (Eds.), Robert Owen, prophet of the poor: Essays in honour of the two-hundredth anniversary of his birth (pp. 13–38). Macmillan.

UK Society for Co-operative Studies. (2023). About us. https://www.ukscs.coop/pages/about-us

Vernon, K. (2016). History, citizenship and co-operative education, c. 1895–1930. In A. Webster, L. Shaw, & R. Vorberg-Rugh (Eds.), Mainstreaming co-operation: An alternative for the twenty-first century? Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526100993.00010

Webb, B. (1899). The co-operative movement in Great Britain. Sonnenschein

Weber, M., & Kalberg, S. (2013). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315063645

Webster, A. (2021). Speaking for co-operation: The rise of the co-operative press. Journal of Co-operative Studies, 54(3), 20–27.

Webster, A., Shaw, L., Stewart, D., Walton, J. K., & Brown, A. (2012). The hidden alternative. In A. Webster, A. Brown, D. Stewart, J. K. Walton, & L. Shaw (Eds.), The hidden alternative: Co-operative values, past, present and future (pp. 1–15). Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.18356/ea074cb2-en

Wiener, J. H. (1989). William Lovett. Manchester University Press.

Williams, R. (1973). Base and superstructure in Marxist cultural theory. New Left Review, 82, 3–14.

Williams, R. (2011). The long revolution. Parthian.

Woodin, T. (2012). Co-operative education in Britain during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Context, identity and learning. In A. Webster, A. Brown, D. Stewart, J.K. Walton, & L. Shaw (Eds.), The hidden alternative: Co-operative values, past, present and future (pp. 78–95). Manchester University Press. https://doi.org/10.18356/5dcd8d23-en

Woodin, T. (2015). Co-operation, learning and co-operative values. Taylor & Francis.  https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315778013

Woodin, T., & Shaw, L. (2019). Learning for a co-operative world: Education, social change and the Co‑operative College. ERIC.

Yeo, E. (1971). Robert Owen and radical culture. In S. Pollard & J. Salt (Eds.), Robert Owen, prophet of the poor: Essays in honour of the two-hundredth anniversary of his birth (pp. 84-114). Macmillan.

Yeo, S. (2009). Towards co-operative politics: Using early to generate late socialism. Journal of Co‑operative Studies, 42(3), 22–35.

Yeo, S. (2011). Afterword: Looking forward: Co-operative politics or can Owen still help? In N. Thompson & C. Williams (Eds.), Robert Owen and his legacy (pp. 239–258). University of Wales Press.

Yeo, S. (2017). Victorian agitator, George Jacob Holyoake (1817-1906): Co-operation as ‘This New Order of Life’. Edward Everett Root.