The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods

by John McKnight, Peter Block

There is a growing movement of people with a different vision for their local communities. They know that real satisfaction and the good life are not provided by organizations, institutions, or systems. No number of great CEO’s, central offices, or long range plans produce what a community can produce. People are discovering a new possibility for their lives. They have a calling. They are called. And together they call upon themselves.This possibility is idealistic, and yet it is an ideal within our grasp. It is a possibility that is both idealistic and realistic. Our culture leads us to believe that a satisfying life can be purchased. It tells us that in the place where we live, we don't have the resources to create a good life. This book reminds us that a neighborhood that can raise a child, provide security, sustain our health, secure our income, and care for our vulnerable people is within the power of our community. This book gives voice to our ideal of a beloved community. It reminds us of our power to create a hope-filled life. It assures us that when we join together with our neighbors we are the architects of the future where we want to live.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sociology, Professional Development, Urban, Leadership, Audiobook, Christian

192 pages, Hardcover

First published June 14, 2010

Reviews

[Aden Date · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had difficulty finishing this book, and stopped reading some time ago - so feel free to take this review with a grain of salt.

I should state by saying that I broadly agree with the thrust of the book: That there has been a breakdown of "community," in our culture and that we would be richer if we worked towards its repair.

Like many pop-sociology books, I felt it fell in to a few common traps:
Jargon. The book very quickly moves in to using it's own brand of rhetoric, familiar to community organisers, townsfolk, and local politicians. I didn't mind it too much, but as a persuasive text, it does more to affirm believers than to convert the disinterested.
Too long. The book, at it's core, is a moral assessment of our current state of affairs. While some argument needs to be made, it moves from persuasive to jargonistic jingoism very quickly.
Failure to consider major challenges / idealism. The author's utopia is virtually a luddite fantasy and gives only the most dismissive attention to the benefits of globalisation and capitalism. Communities are great for local permaculture, but what about our communities in arid regions? A community may be able to educate a child, but does it have the expertise to raise a child with Autism?

[Meagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. I wanted it to be inspiring and transformative because I so strongly agree with its main thrust and wish for an awakening of community. While it wasn't quite everything I hoped for, it definitely has some good things to offer. It has some good practical ideas for overcoming awkwardness and starting simple conversations that can start to knit your neighborhood together. I think it is also underpinned by some good principles regarding what is valuable in communities and how consumer culture often works against community.

The ideology is an interesting mix of liberal and conservative thought. It is "liberal" in how it sees the dark side of consumerism and large corporations. It is "conservative" in how it eschews government programs (or even systematized charitable programs) as a main means of solving problems or helping people. While I didn't agree with everything it had to say, I appreciated it as an interesting third way -- rare right now.

A couple things that really drove me bananas:

Sloppy language in a couple places such as, "Individual behavior--what we eat and whether we exercise--is determined locally by community custom..." No. I agree that community custom influences people's behavior, even strongly, but it doesn't determine it.

Also, there was an implied assumption that the neighborhood you live in is socioeconomically diverse, that rich and poor should connect and get to know one another and help one another right there in their own neighborhoods. I agree this is a beautiful idea, but many people live in economically homogeneous neighborhoods. If a person living in a neighborhood of half-million dollar and up homes focuses on the few blocks right around her where she can really get to know people, improve the local school, the local park, the local neighborhood association etc. that's going to further exacerbate inequality between her neighborhood and the one a few miles away where the schools and parks may be in even greater need and the residents have less money to give. Of course there's no easy answer to this problem because the farther away a community is the harder it is to be in real relationship with those people, and at some point, when considering communities all over the world, it becomes virtually impossible. That's why "Who is my neighbor?" is such an important, difficult, and timeless question.

I think this book successfully grapples with the question: How can I improve my cooperation and connectedness with my neighbors? But, in my opinion, it does too little to address how you decide who counts as a neighbor when your neighborhood is not the ideal picture of diversity.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! This book was amazing. I'll give it 4.5 stars. It dissects our American culture that makes sense and challenges our assumptions. If you've ever wondered just how profoundly this culture is impacting you and those around you then you should give this book a read. I deducted half a star because the writing style was a bit hard for me to read. It just never flowed super well, despite the fact that what I was reading was really interesting and important.

[Silas White · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like Peter Block's Community, this is an important book, and certainly charges out of the gate as an important book, but then relaxes into a carefully crafted, repetitive, humourless tedium. I still feel the Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapters 6-7 at the end are essential reading. I wish the rest of the book could've effectively and engagingly built on this fundamental view expressed at the beginning and end, rather than merely acted as filler. I don't think it was structured well in that the meat of the book is the last 33 pages, the conclusion.

I should add that the mention of families in the subtitle is misleading. Unfortunately, there is very little in this book on the endeavour of working with families in community-building.

[Ashlee Eiland · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ Read this book for a class I’m taking on ABCD. While I absolutely love the framework of gifts/assets, associations and hospitality - there were some assumptions the authors made that didn’t seem helpful. By the end of the book, it felt like some content was repetitive. Overall, however, it presents an approach to community-building that is absolutely the way forward.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated the perspective and the idealism. It reminded me of moments when I was in abundant communities and gave me thoughts on how to return to them. As someone who studies communes, I saw a lot of the 1960s communal ambitions within these pages. That said, living in a conflict-riddled landscape of 2020, I wondered how much it mattered if I'd read this book if my neighbors and friends haven't. Glad I read it, and maybe need to keep referencing aspects of this to give a bit of hope that we can construct something different for our future.

[Casey Blum]

DNF

I think I got everything from this book that I needed to get without finishing. Author is very repetitive and also doesn’t really take people at a financial disadvantage into account. Wanted to love this book and learn some more since I really care about the topic, but the authors just gave us a whole lot of nothin…..

definitely want to read more books centered around community benefits in the future. this just wasn’t the one

[Bryan Atkinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some great ideas about how to develop community along with rants and some overstated opinions that seem weak to me.

[Kare Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this weak economy where budgets of local governments and non-profit budgets will continue to get slashed, it is especially heartening to read the mutual-reliance message inherent in this book. Rather than rely solely on outsiders and related funding and services, the authors suggest we band together with locals to come up with our own solutions to problems – and ways to leverage the resources we each have in support of “our” community.

While the authors advocate “no more relying on institutions or systems to provide us with the good life” the ideas that are good enough to be adopted do tend to get honed into systems and sometimes even institutions. That’s part of the ebb and flow of community design.

I see variations on this message from sites like shareable and the creative people cited in Richard Florida’s books.

Another reviewer notes that the authors advocate our striving toward greater compassion for each other rather than greater systems of efficiency yet I believe that, like natural systems and user-friendly design, finding ways to be more efficient can be a reflection of caring about one’s community.

Not only do I feel compassion but genuine liking for those in my community who invent or suggest a way to make our community better run and/or close-knit. That’s compassion in action.

As a long admirer of Block’s ideas who believes that the economy will be bumpy at best for the next five or so years I am heartened by the several specific ways that bottom-up community-building is happening - and that the models for such local efforts spreading so leaders in different communities can learn from each other’s local experience.

The more specific they are the more “spreadable” they become – and often they reflect more efficient ways to be mutually supportive.

Some examples are as seemingly mundane as Freecycle – which is elegantly moderated in my Marin County by “Nicole,” co-work space and the Village movement started in Beacon Hill.

When people discover concrete ways they can be mutually-supportive they tend to adopt and modify them and to tell others. to spread.

From my work in forging partnerships to generate more value and visibility I’ve found that identifying the sweet spot of mutual interest between individuals and/or organizations is a crucial first step to exploring how to accomplish greater things together than one can alone. When people collaborate around an explicit shared purpose they tend to bring out the better sides in each other so they inevitably get closer.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the co-authors use their influence to advocate the creation of an online community where we could exchange ideas about what’s working to create “abundant communities?”

[Paul Signorelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

To propose the existence of abundance at a time when so many people are discouraged and overwhelmed might appear to be a hard sell. But that's exactly what John McKnight and Peter Block effectively do and nurture through their wonderful book "The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods" and the Abundant Community website (http://www.abundantcommunity.com) they maintain to support and spread their work--and ours. A heartfelt and encouraging paean to the power of collaboration, the book serves as a positive source of inspiration for rethinking many of our unquestioned assumptions; it also consistently serves as a useful handbook for those of us interested in and committed to building the sort of collaborative coalitions that make a difference locally, regionally, nationally, and globally with surprisingly little effort. McKnight and Block begin the rethinking process by drawing a distinction between what they call "citizen" and "consumer" societies--maintaining that until we reverse the trend away from the citizen to the consumer model, we're going to miss the obvious abundance of resources around us and the opportunities to overcome the challenges that leave so many people feeling incapable of effecting change. The writers are explicit about the problems we create when we fail to acknowledge and build upon the abundance that remains untapped within communities; they are equally explicit about the numerous, simple achievable changes we can make to address these challenges. The abundant community that McKnight and Block want to help us strengthen is built upon several core beliefs that too few of us recognize; drawing upon their lucid and inspiring work takes us one big step on a path to finding solutions to the challenges that we face.

[Rob Kall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read and loved this book, then interviewed the authors together, on my radio show. Here's what I said, introducing the book.
I got a look at this book, and the subtitle is Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods. The Abundant Community: Awakening the Power of Families and Neighborhoods. And, it sat on my desk a little bit, and I just looked at it, and I wasn't real excited about it right away, but then I opened it up and I started looking at it, and all of a sudden I got really excited, and I have to tell you, this is a book I'm telling people about. So, I am saying, "You have to read this book," because I think it's an important book that really looks at where we're going, where our culture is, in a very different light that reminds us of who we are, where we've been, and where we're going

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I’ve had this on my shelf for 9 years and finally finished - thank you audiobooks!

After that long wait I was underwhelmed. It is disappointing - though not surprising - to me that this book does not interrogate power and race at all. It assumes a generic “we” that all operate from the same experience and assets, who are all “citizens”.

Some inspiring thoughts here about caring for one another but far too idealized and unwilling to tackle the hoarding of power to be a practical resource.

[Sheri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book laments the decline of community, particularly locational community. The authors define what, exactly, has been lost, and give suggestions for recreating community. They seemed almost too optimistic about neighbors' willingness to be involved in others' lives, but perhaps I am too pessimistic.

[allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book was wonderful. But the chapters dedicated to solution felt like an oversimplification. Still, I like the overall premise of the book and what they're trying to convey.

[Keith Svetlik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Stopped

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've quite mixed reviews on this book. It's been on my shelves since 2017 and I have only just got round to reading it. It's also a precursor to The Connected Community: Discovering the Health, Wealth, and Power of Neighborhoods written by the same author with Cormac Russell which I thought was brilliant and inspiring. I wouldn't like to share where the roots of Asset Based Community Development come from because I think there are a myriad of instances from anarchist mutual aid groups to church community groups and importantly how ordinary people have collectively supported each other since the time they first started to live together. That said, 'The Abundant Community' was certainly a book which drew my attention a few years ago as the ideas were becoming more codified and mainstream.

The central premise of the book is that communities and the people in them have strengths, strengths we do not know about and it is these strengths that provide community cohesion and networks were people can support each other. If anyone has read 'The Connected Community' I would say this book isn't necessary as the ideas and thinking are better explained there, but in this book the core ideas and approach are present. The main takeaway being that communities can provide food for each other, security, safety, happiness and education and that they do not need to rely on a life provisioned by services and codified solutions. It is a book which is against the commodification of almost every aspect of our life (it calls this the 'system life' - a term I struggle with because I see community networks as a 'system' too, albeit without the mechanistic inference the word brings).

The very basic approach is stating that a) everyone has gifts - things we are good at which we can share, b) that by association, and association with other groups we can harness these gifts, and connect with others and finally, by c) being hospitable, welcoming strangers and those at the edges of communities we can broaden our gifts and association and make our communities more diverse and stronger.

There is less practical advice here compared to 'The Connected Community' - essentially saying, 'knock on a few doors and ask what gifts people have and try and match them'.

Where I struggle with the book is that it is clearly intended for American audiences, and whilst it is stating the case for almost an anti-capitalist, non-corporate world it feels very rooted in the myths Americans tell themselves about their culture. So for instance there is often a harkening back to pioneers who had problems yet brought gifts and helped each other out to raise the communities people live in today. Yes homesteaders may have collaborated and formed small towns but there seems to be a lack of awareness of the harm done to indigenous people and the stealing of their gifts, nor the exploitation of slaves exported to provide the wealth of a nation. It's one thing to use a homesteader analogy to show how people can help each other, but there is an almost daydream quality harkening back to a Christian, hard-working, non-consumerist culture which cannot be neutral.

Similarly, in places the book makes ridiculous assertions, passed off as fact. For instance the book claims that when people had arranged marriages it strengthened communities and brought families together. I think there is something in the isolated nuclear family that encourages consumerism, but this seems a weak point, suggesting romantic marriage destroyed community, and ignores how arranged marriage may have concentrated wealth and resources rather than making them abundant. I would also argue that the concept of arranged marriages is not universal up until romantic marriage took hold. It seems a really silly point to make.

Likewise there is a quote that says, 'the worst thing about prison is it stops people giving their gifts'. However this ignores how prisoners can and do form communities, albeit behind bars and also how prisoners support each other with education, with gifts of mutual aid and support, with mental and emotional healthcare and a myriad of other ways to help each other during their incarceration. Also, prison may restrict the sharing of gifts but there are support networks between those in jail or not. So again, it's a different system, a different community but jail doesn't stop this way of thinking and living.

So yes, it's an important book in the world of Asset Based Community Development but it's tone can be quite annoying and frustrating at times. Read 'The Connected Community' instead.

[Tony Crispin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well guys, I cannot lie to you. I gotta say that was probably my favorite urban planning book I've read this year*, it was such a banger from cover to cover.

The main idea here is promoting Asset-Based Community Development, which mostly means looking at communities primarily by what they already have (mostly manifested in individuals and associations) rather than what they're lacking. By building up what already exists, other problems can get solved in a kind of non-linear fashion.

I think what I liked so much about this book is that I've been building up the ideas in this book on my own for a while (mostly that modern approaches to urban planning/community development don't really work as well as we'd like them to, and we need new tools and philosophies to approach creating real places with swag and soul) and this book just hit the nail on the head for describing what I was already kind of on the path to figuring out. Namely, consumer societies don't give true happiness; collective projects are what bring communities together; localism is the real way; we cannot systematize what really matters; what really matters are the finer things in life, what money can't buy. There's a hundred little nuggets in here that build up to the core thesis of the book, that being that the world has had enough of the bullshit in consumption-based healing and needs a more dedicated, constructive approach.

The book spends it's pretty brief page count focusing less on specific case studies and more on the building blocks of why this works and the core logic of the approach. Some people might care more to see examples, but I think resources are provided at the end for that purpose.

It ends on a real plot twist though (and I will now spoil it): the recipe for success outlined here is high impact, transformative, empowering, and does not require federal grant money, feasibility studies, or management consultants. The key to success literally requires yourself, a clipboard, and sheer tyranny of will. It's wild but you gotta read the book to find out more.

I read this alongside two of McKnight's other books (The Careless Society and An Other Kingdom) and I recommend you do as well if you want to get into this. It requires a real shift in perspective and the willingness to get off the beaten path, but if you have a real love of the game and are motivated primarily just by helping people, this one's for you.

Also, the real, real plot twist is in the last few lines of the book. You can figure it out as the book goes along, but to spoil it: this book is actually a long, pragmatic argument for the power of love and friendship. And that's what's up.

*It's my second favorite overall. This book got bodied by Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned

[Bruce Stopher · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only made it 42% of the way through this book and couldn't continue. The first third of the book is more about what's wrong with consumerism than what's right with community. Grand claims are made about how community will provide individuals with ultimate satisfaction and meaning without any objective data provided. The author often admitted that he was giving "extreme" examples against consumerism with few and relatively weak examples to support his postmodern tribalism (and yes, he does quite Nietzsche). The most frustrating argument of his was against hospice care. The author feels the community can provide better end of life care than professionals can. He doesn't bother to consider where the community would get the pain medicine (like IT morphine) to provide comfort to the dying. Seems like he prefers the person writhe in pain than have a hospice nurse.

[TWEAKS · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/5 stars for many reasons but mostly because of the romanticization of the conception of the us empire - calling settlers "pioneers", not mentioning the genocide, extreme displacement and chattel slavery that white settlers built said "community" on and in turn lending to the myth that this land was built on the values of democracy instead of genocide & enslavement. overall no intersectional context on the ways many marginalized groups cannot sustain healthy communities because of raids, planted drugs in their communities, redlining, bombings & other terrorist acts performed by the hegemonic (white European descendant) class. Sincerely two white men speaking in idealistic terms about community without decolonizing their own internalizions of settler colonialism and how it has molded American understandings of community.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

The publisher's blurb has this line, "Our culture leads us to believe that a satisfying life can be purchased." which I think may be what some in the culture would like us to believe. McKnight would, I think, have us all believe that this is the only thing our current culture is selling, but I don't think that is so. He goes on to try to sell the idea that only in community will satisfaction be found, but it sounds like a community to make only the likes of McKnight very happy. Some interesting points, but I suspect he would really only be happy in society of Karens.

[Jamie Tubbs]

Obsessed with the concepts in this book. My criticisms include the need for continued deconstruction of systemic white supremacy in ABCD circles, the apparent academic focus of the org compared to practice, need for further development of connections to/overlap with indigenous practices of community. My praise is for the vision of strengths based community development, place based thinking, and activating integration of systems, institutions, individuals in a shared place for common goals.

[John Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid read. If you want to build up your community, your neighborhood, or just want to know what's wrong with the world today, this might be a good place to start. Both investigate the origins of issues in our world (boiled down to no longer living well in small communities) and offering advice and practical solutions.

[Graydon Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book outlines a new way of thinking about our communities based on the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) model. Instead of asking, “What do we need?” we can ask, “What do we already have?” Rather than operating out a scarcity mentality that drives consumerism, we can see with new eyes when we take an abundance mentality that realizes we are surrounded with countless gifts among us.

[Ashley]

Some very helpful explorations of what it means to be citizens and part of a community, vs. merely consumers, as we’re socialized to be. I’ve flagged many pages to review and take notes on before returning the book. I’m glad to have read it—and I agree with most of the critiques I’ve read in other reviews here.

[Justin Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great read especially for those involved in community development. Loved the critique of modern social structures. Thought the books downfall is that it could have been said in far fewer words.

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful message -- great book with great information on how to create abundant communities. I see a lot of this going on already, here and there, but McKnight and Block lay out a wonderful roadmap for communities who desire change beyond their current state.

[Brent Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is required reading for people hoping to find their way back to communities that are sustainable and resilient! Especially those change-maker types who all too often just need a place of stability and connection to ground them and help them focus their God-given capacities optimally.

[Albert Hong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid main idea - everything we need, we can find in the community. Now let's see how that works in practice...

[Angie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book on re-directing human beings back to community. Not so much of a how-to book but it helps stimulate our thoughts on community living and co-existing.

[Jocelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for class. Quick read, some good, helpful points, but a bit idealistic.