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GOLTC

GLOBAL
OBSERVATORY
OF LONG-TERM
CARE

Part of the International Long-Term Care Policy Network (ILPN)

 

Barbara Barbosa Neves

Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies, University of Sydney

Barbara Barbosa Neves

Dr Barbara Barbosa Neves (PhD, FRSA, FHEA) is an award-winning sociologist of technology and ageing, based at the Sydney Centre for Healthy Societies. She holds a prestigious Sydney Horizon Fellowship in AI social science and healthy ageing at the University of Sydney and is an incoming Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow. Dr Neves is an internationally recognised expert on loneliness, social isolation, and digital inequalities in later life. Barbara has secured more than $7 million dollars in competitive funding from scientific and industry bodies in Australia, the European Union, and Canada. She currently holds an ARC Discovery Project on loneliness and technology and two MRFFs on dementia. Additionally, she is the Lead Chief Investigator of a national evaluation of the ACVVS for the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care. Her co-designed, mixed-methods research focuses on how technologies like AI, VR, and robotics can benefit rather than exclude older people (65+). This research has received 28 esteemed awards in North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia – and it has been used to refine technology design and inform social policy and care practices (Canada, Australia, Europe). Her research has been used to improve technology design for frail older people and to design care practices and policy in Canada, Australia, and Europe. It has also been cited by the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the European Union (EU), as well as by government bodies and policy reports in 13 different countries. Dr Neves has a background in sociology and human-computer interaction. Prior to moving to Australia, she was an Associate Director at the Technologies for Aging Gracefully Lab, Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto, Canada.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Countries Australia;
Topics Artificial Intelligence; Care Homes; Care inequalities; Care innovations; Co-production in LTC; Digital Technology; Loneliness among older people;
Methods Case studies; Co-production methods; Creative research methods; Ethnography; Expert consultations; Feasibility studies; Focus groups; Interviews; Longitudinal data analysis; Longitudinal qualitative studies; Mixed methods; Narrative evaluation methods; Observational studies; Panel data analysis; Participatory research methods; Qualitative studies; Quantitative data analysis; Quasi-experimental methods; Questionnaire; Research diaries; Surveys; Thematic analysis; Usability study;
Role Research;
Interest Groups Technology and Long-Term Care;
Websitehttp://www.bbneves.com
ORC.ID0000-0002-4490-4322
GOOGLE SCHOLARhttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=woSHWtgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao
LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/barbarabarbosaneves/
Other 1https://www.sydney.edu.au/arts/about/our-people/academic-staff/barbara-barbosaneves.html;
Research interests

New technologies, long-term care, Artificial Intelligence, inequalities, loneliness, social isolation, ageism
Key publications
  1. Neves, B. B., Omori, M., Petersen, A., Vered, M., & Carter, A. (2025). Navigating artificial intelligence in care homes: Competing stakeholder views of trust and logics of care. Social Science & Medicine, 358, 117187.
  2. Neves, B. B., & Petersen, A. (2025). The social stigma of loneliness: A sociological approach to understanding the experiences of older people. The Sociological Review, 73(2), 362-383.
  3. Neves, B. B., Sanders, A., Warren, N., & Ko, P. C. (2024). Loneliness in later life as existential inequality. Sociology, 58(3), 659-681.
  4. Neves, B. B., Colón Cabrera, D., Sanders, A., & Warren, N. (2023). Pandemic diaries: Lived experiences of loneliness, loss, and hope among older adults during COVID-19. The Gerontologist, 63(1), 120-130.
  5. Neves, B. B., Petersen, A., Vered, M., Carter, A., & Omori, M. (2023). Artificial intelligence in long-term care: technological promise, aging anxieties, and sociotechnical ageism. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 42(6), 1274-1282.
  6. Neves, B. B., & Mead, G. (2021). Digital technology and older people: Towards a sociological approach to technology adoption in later life. Sociology, 55(5), 888-905.
  7. Neves, B. B., Franz, R., Judges, R., Beermann, C., & Baecker, R. (2019). Can digital technology enhance social connectedness among older adults? A feasibility study. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 38(1), 49-72.
  8. Neves, B. B., Sanders, A., & Kokanović, R. (2019). “It’s the worst bloody feeling in the world”: Experiences of loneliness and social isolation among older people living in care homes. Journal of aging studies, 49, 74-84.
  9. Neves, B. B., Waycott, J., & Malta, S. (2018). Old and afraid of new communication technologies? Reconceptualising and contesting the ‘age-based digital divide’. Journal of Sociology, 54(2), 236-248.
  10. Neves, B. B., Fonseca, J. R., Amaro, F., & Pasqualotti, A. (2018). Social capital and Internet use in an age-comparative perspective with a focus on later life. PloS one, 13(2), e0192119.