Developement of the principles and plans on which to establish self-supporting home colonies ...

Owen was a utopian Socialist and sponsored a number of experimental communities, including one at New Harmony, Indiana. He believed that man has no control over his character, and must be placed within a "proper" environment from his earliest years. He experimented with factory reform within the confines of his own successful cotton factory, as well as other locations, although his theories eventually proved to have little effect on the industrial world..