Students on the “Web”: Social Media as an Actor in Assembling “Network Spaces” of Educational Migrants in Irkutsk

Abstract

The article studies daily online and offline practices by trans-local (Russian) and transnational (Chinese) student migrants in Irkutsk. Drawing on the concept proposed by J. Law, distinguishing between “Euclidean space” and “Network space”, we aimed to explain how migrant students’ participation in various digital chats and groups shapes and stabilizes different networks, determining their everyday practices. We demonstrate that for Chinese students, participation in social media groups becomes the foundation for forming their “Network space”, playing a primary role in its assembly. For Russians, however, social media mainly supplement offline practices, supporting building the “Network space”. Thus, while physically present in the same locations (“Euclidean space”) daily, trans-local (Russian) and transnational (Chinese) students perceive them differently as they simultaneously exist in various “Network spaces”, including those influenced by digital resources.