Assembling support

A practice-based Study of Korean exchange students in a non-urban U.S. university

Abstract

This study examines how international students organize social support in a non-urban campus shaped by spatial constraints and limited institutional resources. Focusing on Korean exchange students at a U.S. university, it reframes social support as a process that emerges through everyday practices rather than as a static resource. Drawing on Social Practice Theory, the study analyzes how support is produced through the interaction of materials, competencies, and meanings. The findings show that support is not readily available within the institutional environment but is actively constructed through ongoing practices involving information-seeking, mobility coordination, relationship-building, and digitally mediated communication. These practices are shaped by spatial conditions and require continuous adjustment and interaction with others. The study contributes to international student research by conceptualizing support as an emergent, practice-based process shaped by spatial constraints and digital mediation, and by highlighting how non-urban contexts actively structure the organization of support in everyday life.