Mushin

Hi, I’m Bárbara Barbosa Neves. Here I record my ideas about technology, social media, sociology, and anything that comes to my mind.

I’m a Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Administration & Policies, ISCSP-UTL, Portugal. My research has been focused on the social impact of technology, digital cities, e-government, social media, and e-inclusion.

I’m also a PhD candidate in Sociology at the Technical University of Lisbon and a visiting doctoral student at Netlab, University of Toronto. My PhD research is about Internet and social capital in Lisbon. Professor João Bilhim (ISCSP-UTL) and Professor Barry Wellman (Netlab) are my PhD advisors. Professor Fausto Amaro and fabulous Beverly Wellman guide me informally.

This year, I’m having fun as a visiting scholar at the department of Media and Communication (IMK) of the University of Oslo, Norway.

I’m an elected member of the board of the Committee on Family Research (CFR), International Sociology Association (ISA).

In my free time, I like to read (everything, cereal boxes included), to run, to wander aimlessly with my dog Mr. Joey, and to have philosophical debates with my partner, Marcos Caceres, while he cooks

If you want to contact me, I’m available at barbara at bbneves.com or barbara.neves at iscsp.utl.pt. You can also find me at academia. I’m @barbaraneves on twitter.

What’s Mushin?

Mushin (shortened from mushin no shin) means literally “no mindedness”. In martial arts, it’s a cognitive state, where the mind is not focused on anything and therefore is open to everything. As I’m not a fighter – I just love Shaolin movies – I use it to describe a basic principle of research: having an open mind.