Usha Raman

Hello, my name is Usha Raman. I am a professor of Media Studies and Communication at the University of Hyderabad, and I’m also the co-founder of an organization called FemLab, which explores the future of women’s work in the digital economy. From my perspective, and that of FemLab, it’s clear that we need to challenge the way the platform economy is currently evolving. One approach to this challenge is by redefining the values that we believe are crucial for the future of this economy.

Platform cooperativism, particularly the cooperative values, provides us with a framework to rethink the structure and governance of platforms, as well as the nature of participation they require. Through our work at FemLab, we contribute to this discourse by infusing it with feminist values. Feminist values, which inherently support shared ownership and recognize the importance of both productive and reproductive work, align closely with cooperative values. These values emphasize the need to focus on community in its most ideal form, fostering common ownership and deriving value from our collective actions.