President of Heavy Duty, Dorman Products
Search every verified John Mcknight interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. John McKnight has been discussing asset-based community development (ABCD), an approach he helped develop that focuses on identifying and investing in the strengths and capacities of local neighborhoods rather than focusing on their problems and deficits. In a 2014 appearance, he described neighborhoods as having "a huge invisible set of possibilities" that are often overlooked by institutions. He argued that the "basic experiential base for democracy" is knowing what a neighbor means, and that democracy depends on citizens working together locally to keep government moral, stating that "if locally people don't have the experience of working together to make their society more livable... the democracy's on the way out." McKnight has also reflected on the role of government, expressing respect for its power to enact policies like affirmative action, which he said changed employment for African-Americans "more in three years than it happened in all of history." He described governments as "able" rather than moral, and said the key question is how citizens can keep them moral. He has characterized the future of community and democracy as a resistance to "professionalism, technology, and big systems," advocating instead for local, associational action. He noted that great movements are not organized from the top but are ignited when local action "sweep[s] the consciousness and the policy of your country."
“John Kennedy signed an executive order requiring all government contractors to engage in a now famous phrase, affirmative action, and so nobody in the government knew anything about what affirmative action might be meant more than stop discriminating; you're going to have to do something affirmative to credit to the pa...”
“In three years we were able to change what was going on in terms of employment of African-American people in the United States more in three years than it happened in all of history because of the power of the government to begin to affirmatively say we in no way will support discrimination by anybody that gets our mon...”
“Governments are not moral; they're able. So the real question is how do we keep them moral? And I think we'll never do it internally. What we mean by democracy is the possibility that in combination citizens might keep the government moral.”
“If locally people don't have the experience of working together to make their society more livable and they are individuals who are just consumers, the democracy's on the way out.”
“The basic experiential base for democracy is our knowing what a neighbor means and then we can speak to the people in power to say you reflect what we do, you support what we create.”
“I have always had a deep respect for the power of government to do certain kinds of things, like affirmative action, but not respect for the ability to do other kinds of things.”
“There is in every neighborhood a huge invisible set of possibilities that aren't identified or discovered, and the capacities, resources, assets, and possibilities of neighborhoods tend to be invisible, whereas what institutions do is always visible.”
“In Canada, there is a culture of cooperation that is much stronger than the local level in the U.S., and I think it grew out of a different kind of history. There's a kind of egalitarian humility and lack of arrogance here, which is a great gift.”
“The future of community and democracy is resisting the major force pushing toward professionalism, technology, and big systems as the way to make a better life, and instead having an alternative.”
“All great movements are not organized movements; they occur when the basic atomic structure of locality and concern and action is finally ignited. Keep doing what you're doing because something will ignite it and then it will sweep the consciousness and the policy of your country.”
“I was absolutely offended because those who had some interest in cities and neighborhoods always focused on the problems, deficits, and needs of local neighborhoods. It seemed to me that they really looked at local places and people as broken, but the people I was dealing with weren't broken and were major producers of...”
“We collected three thousand stories of what local people do when they do things better, whether it's improving local economy, health, or beautification. These stories showed the essential elements and building blocks that people use for successful neighborhood ventures.”
“We concluded that there were five basic building blocks, or 'assets,' that appear in successful neighborhood initiatives. These assets, if invested in properly, grow and contribute to community development, which is the opposite of the traditional deficit-based approach.”
“The asset-based community development approach is an alternative to the needs-based approach. It focuses on a full life rather than an empty half, emphasizing investment in existing community strengths rather than just addressing deficits.”
“More and more people became convinced that anything worth having you buy, so we began to believe in professional competence and experts, and we lost too often out of capacity in neighborhoods.”
Al Etmanski: Al is an author, advocate, and social entrepreneur. President and co-founder of Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network ...
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