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1. INTRODUCTION
Two main subjects are motivating and forming the basis for the hypothesis and argument of this essay.
The first is the Garden City model. The second is the idea of cooperation as a form of land tenure and
housing development. Ebenezer Howards proposals found in To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real
Reform are seen as the origin of the Garden City. These ideas had immense influence on various aspects
of urban planning and practice, not just in the United Kingdom, but also worldwide. The idea of
cooperation has also spread around the world. Its principles have formulated numerous associations with
many different objectives. Its use as a form of land tenure and development of housing is, however,
modest compared to the influence of the Garden City. The objective of this paper is to analyse the ideas
of cooperation, especially regarding land tenure and housing development in the origins of the Garden
City Movement, more precisely, in the proposal by Ebenezer Howard.
2. COOPERATION
Cooperation is seen, for the purpose of this work, as the organisation of individuals according to certain
principles originated from the experience of the Rochdale Pioneers.
Since 1844, when the first cooperative shop was founded by the Rochdale Pioneers, many authors and
organizations proposed changes in the original principles of cooperation. These resulted in some basic
common agreements about the essence of a cooperative organization.
Cooperative, as defined by the Concise Oxford Dictionary is a farm, business, enterprise, etc. owned
and run jointly by its members with profits or benefits shared among them. (The Concise Oxford
Dictionary of Current English, 1995). Cooperative can also be defined as in the Statement of the Co-
operative Identity: A co-operative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet
their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly-owned and
democratically-controlled enterprise. (The International Co-operative Alliance, 1996)
To make the definition more precise, we could describe co-operative by emphasizing its main principles:
Cooperatives are organizations open for everybody in which the association is voluntary. They have
democratic control through the participation of all members with one vote, in which members contribute
equally. They have limited return on the capital invested. Their objectives are meeting peoples economic
needs, and the benefits are distributed among all members proportionally to their participation in the
work.
3. EBENEZER HOWARD
Howard was born in London, in 1850. He studied until the age of 15, and then started working as a clerk
in the City of London. He grew up during the decades of optimism marked by the Great Exhibition of
1851. Not many years after start working, he was unsatisfied with his work and earnings. In 1871 after
declining suggestions of considering a religious career, he emigrated to the United States. In Chicago, he
met Cora Richmond, who was at this time, a celebrated trance medium in the United States. She grew up
on a communitarian colony founded by Adin Ballou, called Hopedale, were all property was to be held in
common. Attending Coras lectures on Spiritualism, Howard had contact with the social reform proposes
by Cora. Communitarianism and cooperativism where between the aims. Howards predilection ...for
communitarian schemes began in 1875 when he first heard Cora Richmond... (Buder, p.12)
While he was in the United States, Howard cultivated ideas about social and urban problems. These
issues became more important during the years following his return to the United Kingdom, where
poverty was widespreading among farmers.
The decade of the 1880s in England was a period of difficulties but also of radical thinking and proposals.
During this period, Howard had contact or matured most of the concepts used in the Garden City Model.
During this period, Land Nationalisation was in debate. Henry Georges book Progress and Poverty
raised the debate about the inequalities created by the appropriation by landlords of the values of
locality created socially. He proposes a system of taxation based on land values that would return to
society, the increase in value generated by social investments, thus combating speculation on land.
George saw speculation as one of the main factors of the growth of the nineteenth century cities.
...George denounced land speculation for its disastrous social consequences. It reduced living
standards, exacerbated inequality of wealth, and created overcrowded cities and underutilized
countryside. (Buder, p.16, 17)
Alfred Russel Wallace was interested in the Land Question and had also been influenced by Georges
Progress and Poverty. Wallace proposed that land should be nationalised. Differently from George,
however, he said that the government should buy the land and rent to tenants. In 1881 The Land
Nationalisation Society was founded in London to further Wallaces program. (Buder, p.20) Both
George and Wallace were proposing that land, by being a limited resource, should be of common
property. They also believed that basic services like telephones and gas should not be private. But apart
from these, they believed in the market economy.
By the end of the 1880s, Wallace was proposing the creation of home-colonies with government
ownership of land and an economy based on collectivist principles.
Alfred Marshall had a different view than George. Marshall argued that the housing question was caused
by the growth of the great cities, by a concentration of too many people in compact areas. He said that the
cause of this concentration was basically due to the industrial technologies at the time. This concentration
had bad consequences for the economic life of the workers, raising rents and compressing wages.
Marshall believed in the possibilities of new technologies to relocate certain industries outside the
congested area, specially large-scale manufacturers.
The problem of London, however, was more complicated. The main employment source was small
workshops that, by not having the necessity of much space, wouldnt feel advantage in relocate. To solve
the problem of London Marshall proposed the creation of a home colony with adequate houses for
workers. He expected to convince companies to move to it relying in the argument that employees in
such a salutary setting would prove more reliable and efficient. (Buder, p.19)
In 1885 because of his own economic circumstances Howard proposed a sort of communitarian scheme
for his family and his brothers. He planned to rent one big house for both families, sharing all the
expenses. The proposal didnt go further but Howard kept alive the interest in associated or cooperative
housing.
The Cooperative Movement and cooperative enterprises at this time were very popular, specially in the
area of distribution of goods, thus increasing the purchase capacity of the participants by eliminating the
middleman. Although it was between the aims of the first cooperative shops to raise money to fund
colonies, the achievements not just in this area but also in extending the principles to production were
very low.
Edward Bellamys utopian romance Looking Backward appeared in 1889. Howard was specially
interested in Bellamys new social system, called Nationalism.
Bellamy proposes a society organised under a centralised state. Citizens would have guaranteed security,
employment, leisure. The cities would look like parks with public laundries and central dining rooms.
Bellamys combined state control of production and distribution with some individual initiatives in arts.
The Nationalisation of Labour Society founded in 1890 was the counterpart to the American nationalist
societies formed around this time to promote Bellamys vision. Howard became involved with the Society
in the design of an experimental colony near London.
In 1892, J Bruce Wallace organised a study group around Albert Kinsey Owens ideas for a planned
American colony in Topolobampo, Mexico. The aim was to use the model of integral cooperation in a
home colony. In Owens idea, means of production and distribution should be collectively owned to
allow for economies of scale, (Buder, p. 43), while homes and residential lots were private, and some
artisans were self-employed. Physically, the city was a combination of town and country.
Wallace had developed a theory he called circle cooperation. This envisioned a gigantic network of
interlinked producer and consumer cooperatives which, when combined with land nationalisation,
would lead to a Cooperative Commonwealth, a fully socialist society. (Buder, p.56). Criticism of
cooperative schemes at this time was strong, arguing that they were a form of combined individualism.
In the eyes of Wallace, Owens integral cooperation solved the problem by having all community
interests represented by a single company. Both looked at an individualistic form of socialism rather
than a communist society, which still meant to them the older communitarian meaning of total
sharing (Buder, p.56).
A second important idea considered by Wallaces group was presented in Theodore Herzas utopian
novel Freeland. He proposed a colony combining the freedom of individualism with the social justice
of socialism. (Buder, p.56). Contrary to Owen, Herzas proposal allowed for private enterprise where
the land and all the banks would be collectively owned.
By the beginning of the 1890s, Howard was working as a stenographer with the Royal Commission of
Labour. Following its discussions, Howard deepened his concerns and thoughts about unemployment,
the problems of low wage workers, and the migration from countryside to the overcrowded cities. In 1892
he started to translate his thoughts into a concrete proposal for a new colony based on common ownership
of land. His main objective was to show the social advantages of eliminating private landlordism.
Howards first ideas were based on collective ownership of the economy and central management
inspired by Bellamys Nationalism. With problems experienced by such experiments, like Owens
Topolobampo colony, Howard shifted his position in alignment with that proposed by The Land
Nationalisation Society, the idea that just the land would be held in common property. Howard became
involved with Wallaces group, and formulated his Garden City scheme as an alternative to the
original intention of a colony based on Owens integral cooperation.(Buder, p. 40) His proposal
emphasises freedom and experimentation and thus was more in line with twentieth-century liberal
thought. For the next few years Howard worked on his proposal as a book. He had the intention to
regenerate society by setting out a model that, by its inspirational qualities, would be followed. After
some frustrated attempts the book was published in 1898 under the title of To-morrow: A Peaceful Path
to Real Reform.
5. CONCLUSION
The relation between the ideas of cooperation and land tenure is not explicit in the Garden Cities of To-
morrow. However, the close analysis of the principles of both prove that they have much in common.
More than that, both have characteristics that make them different from other proposals of the time, like
communism or individualism, making them even closer.
Regarding housing production and other enterprises, there was not one model to follow in Howards
proposals, but some indications, were the idea of cooperation is explicitly relevant. Through the analyses
of Howards influences during the maturing years of the Garden City proposal is even more clear this
relation of his proposals to the cooperative principles and movement.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES:
Bauer, Catherine. Modern Housing. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
Beevers, Robert: The Garden City Utopia: A Critical Biography of Ebenezer Howard. Basingstoke:
Macmillan Press, 1988.
Borden, Iain: Social Space and Co-operative Housekeeping in The English Garden City, article for the
Journal of Architectural and Planning Research. London: Iain Borden, 1998.
Buder, Stanley: Visionaries & Planners: The Garden City Movement and the Modern Community. New
York : Oxford University Press, 1990.
Howard, Ebenezer: Garden Cities of To-morrow. Powys: Attic Books, 1985.
International Co-operative Alliance: Statement on the Co-operative Identity. Web page
www.wisc.edu/uwcc/prin.htm/#pri, 27 jan 1998.
Mercer, Thomas W.: Foundations of Co-operation: Rochdale Principles and Methods. Review of
International Co-operation no.9 Sep 1931, in gropher://wiscinfo.wisc.edu:70/00/.info-
source/.coop/.orgs/.ica/.pubs/.review/.vol-88-2/.5, 27 jan 1998.
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.