Introduction and Overview › Glossary for the Networking Language · 5 min read
Factors of production describe the fundamental conditions necessary for something to emerge, be maintained, processed, distributed, or further developed.
At TEIKEI, we do not understand factors of production solely in economic terms. They also describe the social, ecological, cultural, and personal prerequisites for collaborative work.
A measure does not only affect money or materials. It can also ease work, build knowledge, conserve resources, strengthen freedom, or make meaningfulness visible.
For evaluations at TEIKEI, six factors of production can be distinguished:
These six factors help to assess measures not only by their immediate outcomes but also by their impact on the entire system.
Labor encompasses the human activity necessary for a process to succeed.
This includes physical labor, organizational work, care work, coordination, maintenance, communication, planning, and responsibility.
What matters to us: labor should be made visible.
Many activities that remain invisible in traditional economic models contribute significantly to ensuring that supply, agriculture, logistics, community, and network maintenance function.
A measure can:
Money describes the financial means necessary to support labor, materials, infrastructure, time, and responsibility.
At TEIKEI, money is not the central focus—it is a carrier medium.
Money should make visible the actual costs, pre-existing efforts, and responsibilities.
A measure can:
The key question here is:
Does money serve collective provision, or does it replace relationships, responsibility, and transparency?
Resources are the material, ecological, technical, and organizational foundations of a process.
These include, for example:
For us, resources are not merely usable means. They are part of a living system.
A measure can:
Knowledge describes the ability to understand contexts, execute processes well, and pass on experiences.
This includes practical knowledge, experiential knowledge, expert knowledge, local knowledge, agricultural knowledge, technical knowledge, and relational knowledge.
For us, knowledge is a collective factor of production.
It arises not only in documents but also in doing, observing, sharing, and joint evaluation.
A measure can:
Knowledge becomes particularly valuable when it can circulate within the network.
Freedom describes the scope of action available to individuals, farms, communities, and supporting structures.
The question is: Are those involved more or less able to act responsibly?
At TEIKEI, freedom does not mean arbitrariness.
It means that people and structures have enough clarity, time, trust, and resources to make good decisions.
A measure can:
Freedom is closely linked to responsibility.
The clearer responsibility is shared, the more sustainable freedom can emerge.
Meaningfulness describes whether people can understand and experience why an action is important.
It connects labor, money, resources, knowledge, and freedom with an internal and shared sense of purpose.
At TEIKEI, meaningfulness arises where people experience:
A measure can:
Meaningfulness is not an add-on—it is a crucial factor in whether people can sustain long-term commitment.
Many evaluations consider only money, quantities, or working hours. This is insufficient for collectively supported structures.
A measure may appear financially sensible but erode knowledge.
A measure may save labor but reduce freedom.
A measure may conserve resources but lose meaningfulness.
A measure may cost money but strengthen knowledge, relationships, and responsibility in the long run.
That is why considering the six factors of production helps to recognize impacts more precisely.
For each measure, we can ask:
These questions help to assess measures not only technically or financially.
They reveal whether an action strengthens, weakens, or merely shifts the collective system.
For TEIKEI, factors of production are not merely business management categories.
They are a tool for better understanding collectively supported provision.
They help evaluate measures, projects, and decisions in a way that makes visible:
This way, we do not view the economy merely as an exchange of goods or money. It becomes a living system of labor, means, resources, knowledge, freedom, and meaning.
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By the TEIKEI editorial team, with support from AI (ChatGPT)
Created on June 22, 2026 · Last updated on October 10, 2026
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