Re-imagining the Platform Firm: Lessons and Design Blueprints from SEWA’s Data Cooperative Experiment explores how women farmers can collectively own, govern, and benefit from data in an increasingly digitalised agricultural economy.
Developed through a partnership between SEWA Cooperative Federation and IT for Change, the research proposes a federated, rights-based data cooperative model rooted in SEWA’s existing cooperative structures and leadership systems.
Drawing on participatory research with women farmers in Gujarat, the study examines how digital technologies can strengthen livelihoods, improve access to information, and generate collective value while protecting data sovereignty. It offers a practical and conceptual framework for building democratic digital infrastructure that resists extractive models of data capitalism and advances meaningful digital inclusion for informal women workers.
