Social Fabric: Becoming a Tight-Knit Neighborhood

We're continuing to spotlight a few of our all-time favorite episodes of The Neighbor Next Door. Last week, we re-released an episode on social capital. This week, we're re-releasing an episode in which hosts Adam and Matt further the concept of social capital through the use of a new term: social fabric.

As we stated last week, this is a busy time of year for us at the Neighboring Movement, so we decided to take a few weeks off from new recordings and instead re-release some of our all-time favorite episodes from the podcast. We'll be back on August 18th with original episodes, but in the meantime, you won't want to miss the episodes we're choosing to re-release! Last week, we presented a July 2019 episode in which Adam and Matt took a deep dive on the concept of social capital. This week, we're presenting an episode that was originally released on August 13, 2019, in which Adam and Matt continue their conversation about social capital but instead start using the new term of social fabric. Because information from last week's re-released episode is referenced in this episode, we would suggest listening to last week's episode first, if you have not already. Next week, we will re-release a favorite neighboring tip episode, before then returning to original content on the 18th. Until then, we hope you continue to enjoy these re-released episodes! Happy listening and happy neighboring!

Building Social Capital, Block by Block

For the next three weeks, we're spotlighting a few of our all-time favorite episodes of The Neighbor Next Door. This week, join us on the front porch as hosts Adam and Matt have a hilarious conversation about a concept that's important to our work: social capital.

This is a busy time of year for us at the Neighboring Movement, so we've decided to take the next three weeks off from new recordings and instead re-release some of our all-time favorite episodes from the podcast. We'll be back on August 18th with original episodes, but in the meantime, you won't want to miss the episodes we're choosing to re-release! This week, we're presenting an episode that was originally released almost exactly a year ago, on July 23, 2019. In it, Adam and Matt take a deep dive on social capital, which is a concept that can seem confusing at first, but we think we have a fantastic way of talking about it, which Adam and Matt present in this episode. It's a concept that's very important to our work, and hence, we think it's important to share with you all! It's also quite related to the subject of next week's re-released episode, so we would highly suggest listening to both this week's and next week's, as they play off of one another. The following week, we will re-release a favorite neighboring tip episode, before then returning to original content on the 18th. Until then, we hope you enjoy these re-released episodes! Happy listening and happy neighboring!

John McKnight (Part 1): Have You Been Out in the Garden?

Goodness gracious me oh my, do we have a few episodes in store for you! Today, we are releasing the first episode of a three-episode series in which hosts Adam and Matt sit down with, quite literally, the founder of asset-based community development, John McKnight.

John began community organizing when he was in his early twenties, and since then, he has done everything from training Barack Obama in community organizing to developing an entirely new model of community development. This model that he developed is of course asset-based community development, or ABCD, and we, the Neighboring Movement, consider ourselves asset-based community developers. That being said, John has always been a hero of ours, and over the years, we have followed his work closely and been deeply inspired and influenced by his practices. He is incredibly kind, absolutely brilliant, and a gifted teacher who always tells the perfect story in order to illustrate a point. We are so very honored that John was willing to sit down on the front porch with us, and we are so excited to share these next three episodes with you all!

In this first episode, John introduces what ABCD is, talks about what asset-based community developers seek to do, and explains how ABCD differs from needs-based approaches. He then details the first two of the five categories of assets that all communities possess. We hope you enjoy this episode, and don't forget to tune in next Tuesday for Part 2!

If you would like to learn more about John and his work, please check out the following resources:

• His website - Here you can learn more about John and access his learnings, publications, videos, and blogs.

• His institute

• His blog

Catherine's Porch Ponderings - Palaces for the People

This week, we're pumped to present a new series: Catherine's Porch Ponderings! Periodically, Catherine Johnson will pop in on the podcast in order to ponder various subjects on the porch with producers Adam and Matt!

For this first episode, Catherine ponders Eric Klinenberg's book Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life. Having read the book recently, Catherine presents and ponders some of Eric's main points and his case for the extreme importance of social infrastructure. We are so honored to be able to ponder on the porch with Catherine, and what she draws out of the book is so illuminating. We are so psyched to share this episode with you all!

If you would like to learn more about Eric's work, or read Palaces for the People, please visit Eric's website: https://www.ericklinenberg.com/