Local Economy

Cormac Russell Note: The following is a guest blog written by Al Etmanski (aletmanski.com) . Al is a community organizer, social entrepreneur and author. John McKnight is his friend. Al's new book is Impact: Six Patterns to Spread Your Social Innovation. There is a...

Here’s some advice for the explorer in you who desires to make the world better, particularly the young bright sparks who are just setting out. Trust all your senses. When your experience compels you to seek something different and your...

A group of leaders of diverse faith affiliations in Cincinnati has been gripped by a sense that the ongoing economic struggle of those on the margins has brought their city to an historic crossroads. Believing that genuine hope for the...

My comments on the deeply touching and intensely relevant conversation on faith during the June 2, 2015 Abundant Community “on-line interchange”   What motivates our business behaviors?  Personal gain or higher purpose, greed or social conscience?  Or what percentage of each? ...

In 1995 John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann convened a circle of friends to help them establish the Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute at Northwestern University. The Institute was built on John and Jody’s work and research over more than...

Sometimes the significance of a happening revisits you much later. When, several years ago, I found myself in a carload of folks that included pioneer of timebanking, Edgar Cahn, I felt very honoured but certainly didn’t imagine what might...

Spring is back, so here's a fresh idea to celebrate the season and discover hidden pleasures in your neighborhood — organize a Jane’s Walk. Since 2007, thousands of people in more than 100 cities around the world enjoy May exploring nature, culture, history...

Not many people have the imagination, intellectual depth and sheer courage to take on an entire profession and demonstrate how it is wrong. Jane Jacobs did. The renegade author and activist — who died in 2006 at age 89...

"Everywhere I go there seems to be a natural curiosity about new ways to solve old problems: what will we eat, what will we drink and where will we stay at night?” says Ruston Seaman, co-founder of New Vision...

From entrepreneurs in their 20s to established real estate developers, the diversity of people who joined the first few gatherings on neighbourhood economics in Cincinnati had an initiator of the effort, Peter Block, happily stunned. The most excited people in some...