This page provides an overview of what is understood by an "actor" in the TEIKEI network.
This does not simply refer to all people, communities, or groups involved in any way. Rather, it primarily means those structures, businesses, organizations, and hubs that perform system-critical tasks for the network or individual farms.
Actors are thus people, communities, and organizations that actively participate in building and shaping the TEIKEI network and, through concrete contributions, shared responsibility, and lived partnerships, support key parts of the shared infrastructure.
Actors in TEIKEI are not mere external service providers.
They are system-critical pillars of the network.
They enable the coordination, bundling, and infrastructure for production, processing, distribution, organization, and collaboration, thereby practically implementing essential parts of a community-supported economic system.
An actor in the TEIKEI network fulfills a function whose absence would have immediate effects on goods flows, collaboration, supply, or farm relationships.
Actors therefore do not contribute only sporadically but maintain part of the infrastructure or practical implementation.
Typical characteristics of an actor include:
Thus, being an actor is not merely a label but a question of function, responsibility, and impact.
In the TEIKEI network, whether something or someone is an actor depends not only on a formal role but on the actual function within the overall system.
A collection warehouse is almost always an actor because it performs central tasks in the movement of goods.
An individual community is not automatically an actor in the strict sense. However, if a farm is closely tied to it and its absence would have direct consequences for harvest, distribution, or relationship work, it may also gain actor status within the network.
Actor status is therefore not a rigid category but a question of relevance, responsibility, and impact.
Typical actor roles in the TEIKEI network include, among others:
Agricultural processing units
such as olive presses, cleaning facilities, or filling stations that are community-owned or used collectively
Logistics partners
responsible for transport, interim storage, order picking, or distribution
Coordination and liaison points
that moderate and structure interfaces between producers, pickup locations, or communities
Processing and bundling centers
regional facilities that prepare and bundle products from various sources to enable community-supported redistribution
Actors for quality assurance
e.g., laboratories, organic control bodies, or internal quality circles that ensure safety, transparency, and traceability
The most important actor groups include, in particular:
These structures support essential parts of the shared infrastructure and are of central importance for the network's practical capacity for action.
Digital infrastructures can also have actor status within the TEIKEI network.
This is the case when they do not merely perform an interchangeable service but take on system-critical functions without which the network or individual farms would no longer be able to operate.
These may include, for example, digital tools or platforms that:
Not every digital support tool is automatically an actor. The decisive factor is whether it is system-relevant and could not be replaced in the short term.
Actors in the TEIKEI network bear not only functional but also cultural responsibility.
With their role comes the expectation that they contribute to the quality of collaboration and uphold the network's shared direction.
This includes, in particular:
This shared attitude strengthens not only practical collaboration but also trust within the network.
Not every form of participation has the same significance for the network.
The distinction helps to:
This makes it clearer where stability, transparency, and learning capacity are particularly important.
The wiki documents with whom the network collaborates.
This serves not only for orientation but also to:
The relationships within the network are not static.
They are dynamic, may grow, change, and evolve.
Under this page, contributions on individual actor groups and specific actors are collected.
These include, among others:
These pages help to better understand the function of individual structures within the network and make their role in the overall system visible.
The more system-relevant an actor is, the more important the question of transparency, responsibility, and shared direction becomes.
Therefore, the actors described here are also connected to the areas of the Manifesto, Commitment, and Principles of Collaboration.
While those areas describe the binding foundations, this section shows which structures in the network practically uphold these foundations.
Even for actors in the strict sense, the ten TEIKEI principles provide an important shared framework.
They help to shape system-relevant tasks not only efficiently but also in a community-oriented, transparent, and adaptable way.
This page aims to:
Step by step, this creates a clearer picture of which structures truly support the TEIKEI network.
One level up: 08 - TEIKEI Network
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: 2026-03-17 · Last updated: 2026-10-12 · Questions or feedback? support@teikei.us