The nine forms of capital, and why we added a ninth
ReGen Civics measures nine forms of capital: the eight from Ethan Roland and Gregory Landua's regenerative economics framework, plus health capital. Health covers a person's physical and emotional vitality, the wealth a bodyworker, herbalist, or movement teacher holds and gives away. The original eight have no place for it. Land projects run on it.
By Rye (Rieki Cordon), Founder, ReGen Civics. Published . Updated .
The eight we started from
Ethan Roland and Gregory Landua published the eight forms of capital in 2011 and expanded it in Regenerative Enterprise in 2013. It is the standard vocabulary in regenerative economics, and for good reason: it takes the word capital away from money alone and makes visible seven other kinds of wealth a person or a place already holds.
The eight are financial, material, living, social, intellectual, experiential, spiritual, and cultural. We use all eight, unchanged, and we recommend the original work to anyone who wants the theory behind them.
The gap we kept hitting
Run a land project for a season and you meet contributions the eight cannot hold. A yoga teacher runs morning movement for a build crew for three months. A bodyworker fixes the backs of everyone who spent August digging. An herbalist keeps four people working through a bad flu week. A cook feeds thirty people food that leaves them able to work the next day.
Try to file those. Living capital in the original framework means soil, water, and ecosystems, the living world as a resource base, not a person's physical condition. Social capital is relationships. Experiential capital is accumulated lived experience and skill. Spiritual capital is meaning and alignment. Every one of them is close, and none of them is it.
So the work of keeping bodies functional stayed invisible in an accounting system built to make invisible wealth visible. That is the gap. It is also the type of capital a fitness instructor sells, a dancer trains for years to hold, and a model is paid for directly, and none of those people could see themselves anywhere in the eight.
Health capital, defined
Health capital is the physical and emotional vitality a person holds, and the work that builds it in others: movement, rest, bodywork, nutrition, recovery, and care.
It behaves like the other capitals. It accumulates. It depletes when spent without replenishment. It can be given away and it can be built collectively. A community with high health capital gets more done with fewer injuries and fewer people quietly burning out, and a community with none of it will regenerate a watershed while its people fall apart doing it.
We added it because we were watching that second pattern happen, in our own network and across the movement, with no line item for it anywhere.
All nine, and how each one is earned
These are the nine as they run in the product. Each quest category feeds one capital, so completing verified work moves a specific root of the tree on a player's profile rather than a single undifferentiated score.
| Capital | What it measures | Quest category that feeds it | In the original eight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intellectual | Knowledge, research, learning, systems design | Governance | Yes |
| Social | Networks, relationships, trust, community bonds | Community building | Yes |
| Material | Tools, infrastructure, hardware, physical assets | Infrastructure | Yes |
| Financial | Money, investment, grants, liquidity | Fundraising | Yes |
| Living | Land, soil, water, ecosystems, biodiversity | Land stewardship | Yes |
| Cultural | Art, stories, ritual, shared meaning | Storytelling | Yes |
| Spiritual | Vision, purpose, alignment, inner development | Ceremony | Yes |
| Experiential | Lived experience, craft hours, embodied skill | Events | Yes |
| Health | Body vitality, wellness, movement, rest, care | Wellness | No. Added by ReGen Civics |
Where the ninth shows up in practice
Crowd pooling covers the campaign side of this in detail, and the contribution calculator is the fastest way to see the nine applied to your own work.
- The contribution calculator has a Health Capital section: wellness classes taught, bodywork sessions given, people supported with care plans, community fitness events led.
- The Living Tree on every player profile has nine roots, one per capital, so the shape of the tree shows what a person actually brings.
- Crowd pooling campaigns carry a nine-segment capital balance meter reading how many forms a campaign has covered, which catches projects asking only for money and hours.
- Quest completions land on the capital their category feeds, so a wellness quest builds health capital rather than a general score.
On changing someone else's framework
Adding to a well-established model deserves a reason stated out loud, which is what this page is for. We did not replace the eight or rename them. We use them as published, credit the authors, and add one form that our practice kept needing and their framework does not cover.
If you use the eight forms and this gap sounds familiar, take the ninth. It costs nothing and it makes a whole category of contributors visible for the first time.
Questions people ask
What are the nine forms of capital?
Financial, material, living, social, intellectual, experiential, spiritual, cultural, and health. The first eight come from Ethan Roland and Gregory Landua's eight forms of capital framework. The ninth, health capital, was added by ReGen Civics to cover physical and emotional vitality and the work that builds it.
What is health capital?
The physical and emotional vitality a person holds, and the work that builds it in others: movement, rest, bodywork, nutrition, recovery, and care. It accumulates, it depletes when spent without replenishment, and it can be given away, which is what makes it capital rather than a condition.
Why nine forms of capital instead of eight?
Because the eight have no place for the work of keeping bodies functional. Living capital means ecosystems, social capital means relationships, experiential capital means accumulated skill. A bodyworker, a movement teacher, an herbalist, and a cook could not find themselves anywhere in the eight, so their contribution stayed invisible.
Who created the eight forms of capital?
Ethan Roland and Gregory Landua, published as 8 Forms of Capital in 2011 and expanded in Regenerative Enterprise in 2013. It is the standard framework in regenerative economics. ReGen Civics uses all eight unchanged and adds health as a ninth.
Is health capital the same as living capital?
No. Living capital in the original framework covers soil, water, ecosystems, and living systems as a resource base. Health capital covers a person's own physical and emotional condition. A project can build living capital for years while its people lose health capital the whole time, which is exactly the pattern the ninth form makes visible.
How does ReGen Civics measure the nine forms?
Through the contribution calculator for self-assessment, through quest completions that land on the capital their category feeds, and through crowd pooling campaigns whose needs are each tagged to a capital. Every player profile shows the distribution as a nine-rooted Living Tree.
Next step
- Use the contribution calculator: Estimate the value of your contributions across all nine forms, including health capital.
- Read how the economy works: Bionomics: how value cycles through the system when money is one form of wealth among nine.