Received Sylff fellowship in 2019.
Current affiliation: University of Geneva
Academic Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Marco Giugni
SRA2019-2
FR: University of Coimbra
TO: DATACTIVE, Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Bio:
Dr. Sérgio Barbosa (University of Coimbra, PhD) is a digital sociologist of private chat groups, focusing on digital activism, digital literacy, AI and Global South. He is a postdoctoral researcher at University of Geneva linked to the Institute of Citizenship Studies (InCite). He is also a visiting researcher at BANDAS-center, University of Graz. Barbosa served as a research fellow at four international research institutions, namely: Center for Advanced Studies (CAS), Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society (IAS-STS), and Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS). His research interests include Chat Apps, Digital Activism, AI, Digital Literacy, and Global South. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Political Studies Review, Mobile Media & Communication, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture, and First Monday, among others.
Academic achievements, social engagement initiatives:
Dr. Sérgio Barbosa has been investigating WhatsApp activism in Brazil for almost 8 years. He argues that a new type of digtal activist is emerging amongst contemporary local mobilizations in the first quarter of the XXI century: the so-called WhatsApp@rs, a (digital) activist who intensely appropriates the chat app leveraging its affordances for emerging forms of political participation, mainly in the Global South. The qualitative approach includes a long-term digital ethnography of two pro-democracy WhatsApp groups, chat scraping, and several face-to-face, semi-structured interviews. It investigates how everyday activists connect their political activities with fellow group members, namely: i) how local communities appropriate WhatsApp affordances, ii) how these grassroots groups creatively enhance communicative repertoires combining WhatsApp online chats with street actions, and iii) how WhatsApp-mediated activism emerges beyond the large-scale mobilizations based in US and Europe, contextualizing their use and appropriation in and from the Global South countries.
Summary of Support Program Activities:
The 2024 SRG grant will showcase AI literacies from the Global South(s). The research visit will develop participatory approaches focusing on the agency of young people to play a multi-disciplinary role for social change at the school level. It delivers AI pluriversal literacies to be a pedagogical toolbox from and with the Global South(s) in a meaningful, inclusive and mutually beneficial way.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/s%C3%A9rgio-barbosa-he-him-his-7129458b/
