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.”
Al Etmanski: Al is an author, advocate, and social entrepreneur. President and co-founder of Planned Lifetime Advocacy Network ...
Sign in to search the full transcript archive, filter by topic, and access every quote from John Mcknight.