Le origini della scienza sociale in Gran Bretagna sono da rintracciare nella storia del movimento filantropico. Fu nel circuito delle associazioni caritatevoli, infatti, che l’espressione «social science» iniziò a essere precocemente utilizzata nel 1790. Più in particolare, fu la filantropia stessa a essere concettualizzata come scienza dell’ordine sociale, volta a estrarre informazioni dalla società per perfezionare l’«arte» di governarla. La carità organizzata ispirò altresì l’istituzione della Social Science Association nel 1857.

The book is an intellectual analysis of the political ideas of English radical thinker Thomas Spence (1750-1814), who was renowned for his "Plan", a proposal for the abolition of private landownership and the replacement of state institutions with a decentralized parochial organization. This system would be realized by means of the revolution of the "swinish multitude", the poor labouring class despised by Edmund Burke and adopted by Spence as his privileged political interlocutor. While he has long been considered an eccentric (...) and anachronistic figure, the book sets out to demonstrate that Spence was a deeply original, thoroughly modern thinker, who translated his themes into a popular language addressing the multitude and publicized his Plan through chapbooks, tokens, and songs. The book is therefore a history of Spence's political thought "from below", designed to decode the subtle complexity of his Plan. It also shows that the Plan featured an excoriating critique of colonialism and slavery as well as a project of global emancipation. By virtue of its transnational scope, the Plan made landfall in the British West Indies a few years after Spence's death. Indeed, Spencean ideas were intellectually implicated in the largest slave revolt in the history of Barbados. (shrink)

When a political movement is named after its founder, as is the case with Owenism, new studies investigating the founder’s works and ideas come as no surprise. Notably, the latest book by Edward Lu...

When a political movement is named after its founder, as is the case with Owenism, new studies investigating the founder’s works and ideas come as no surprise. Notably, the latest book by Edward Lu...