A living framework for community-supported economics
TEIKEI is more than a distribution model. It is a relational space.
A collective design for a different kind of economy, built on trust, transparency, and mutual responsibility.
The ten TEIKEI principles form the inner architecture of this movement. They are not a checklist, nor a ready-made guide—but a framework that invites continual realignment in one’s own actions.
What makes these principles special?
They connect economics with culture. Provision with relationship. Production with meaning.
They assume that people are not merely consumers or producers, but co-creators of a shared whole.
The principles were first formulated in the original TEIKEI model in Japan and have grown, evolved, and transformed over decades in different regions. In today’s European TEIKEI movement, they take on new interpretations:
They come alive where people begin not just to understand them, but to live them.
Why do we need principles?
In a time when economic processes are often disconnected from the real foundations of life—from the soil, from people, from the common good—we need orientation.
The ten principles offer this orientation without dogma. They remind us:
No principle stands alone.
The ten principles interlock like the parts of a living organism.
Advance payment strengthens planned production. Relationship enables democratic administration. Self-distribution requires learning processes and appropriate group sizes.
This creates an ecological, social, and cultural network that is more than the sum of its parts.
An invitation to practice
This document is not documentation. It is an invitation.
Each principle is described on the following pages—not as a rigid rule, but as a space for experience:
with examples, reflection questions, and guidance for application in daily life and in building community-supported structures.
You are invited to participate:
in reading, in reflecting, in implementing, in sharing.
For these principles belong to no one—and they live through each and every one of us.
One level up: Introduction and Overview
Author: Felix Schröder, with assistance from AI (ChatGPT)
Creation: written by Felix Schröder › formatted in Markdown by ChatGPT › published by Felix Schröder › layout adjusted by Claude
Created: 2025-07-20 · Last updated: 2026-10-11 · Questions or feedback? support@teikei.us