Bio
Dr. Malu Villela is a Lecturer in Management at Essex Business School at the University of Essex. Her research focuses on alternative organizational and economic models that advance inclusive and sustainable futures, with particular attention to democratic governance, cooperative and community-led enterprises, and relational approaches to organizing.
Previously, she held both a Vice-Chancellor’s Fellowship and an AXA Fellowship at the University of Bristol, where she conducted place-based research with community organizations on social economy ecosystems and initiatives aimed at building resilient and equitable local economies.
As part of her 2026/2027 ICDE Fellowship, Villela will develop a Manifesto for Cooperative AI and the Collective Good, grounded in comparative research with community and solidarity economy organizations, to articulate the principles, governance structures, and institutional commitments necessary for AI to function as democratic infrastructure beyond extractive platform capitalism.
Before entering academia, she worked in Brazil on sustainable consumption and Amazon rainforest conservation. Her current research explores cooperative approaches to digital technologies that move beyond extractive platform models and instead strengthen community ownership and stewardship of digital infrastructure.