Social Space Research Articles

Alterations in Blood-Brain Barrier Integrity and Lateral Ventricle Differ in Rats Exposed to Space Radiation and Social Isolation.

The proposed Mars missions will expose astronauts to long durations of social isolation (SI) and space radiation (SR). These stressors have been shown to alter the brain's macrostructure and microenvironment, including the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Breakdown of the BBB is linked to impaired executive functions and physical deficits, including sensorimotor and neurocognitive impairments. However, the precise mechanisms mediating these effects remain unknown. Additionally, the synergistic effects of combined exposure to SI and SR on the structural integrity of the BBB and brain remain unknown. We assessed the BBB integrity and morphology in the brains of male rats exposed to ground-based analogs of SI and SR. The rats exposed to SR had enlarged lateral ventricles and increased BBB damage associated with a loss of astrocytes and an increased number of leaky vessels. Many deficits observed in SR-treated animals were attenuated by dual exposure to SI (DFS). SI alone did not show BBB damage but did show differences in astrocyte morphology compared to the Controls. Thus, determining how single and combined inflight stressors modulate CNS structural integrity is crucial to fully understand the multiple pathways that could impact astronaut performance and health, including the alterations to the CNS structures and cell viability observed in this study.

SMM Management of the Restaurant Business Entity

Topicality. Nowadays, the development of the restaurant business is concentrated in the digital environment plane, in which the positioning and promoting the brand form predicates of the consumer’s behaviour and the owner’s (founder’s) reputation, and the brand as a whole. Achieving this goal is facilitated by social media marketing (hereinafter SMM), as one of the leading areas of marketing management. Since social networks are the leading channels for searching information and communication between business entities and product consumers, monitoring the effectiveness of using their functionality in brand promotion becomes an urgent tactical and strategic task. Evaluation of marketing management and supply processes, analysis of key efficiency indicators (KEI) and metrics give an understanding to the restaurant founders and managers at which stage of the life cycle the business and the product itself ground, and which marketing strategies are appropriate. Therefore, their elaboration and facilitation of the methodology of their practical use is an important task in achieving business goals with the help of social networks. The aim of the article is to ground SMM management as a system approach for successful promotion of the entity of the restaurant business and its product. Research methods are based on the hypothesis about the effectiveness of positioning business establishment in social networks, which makes it possible to reach and attract a larger target audience, as well as increase sales. Interpreted for this research, the scientific topic determined using general economic, analytical and statistical methods, which allowed to define theoretical approaches and ground a hypothetical research tool, to form an appropriate marketing management system of the restaurant business entity. Results. The definition of “SMM management” was worked out, as well as its main goals, initiatives and functions were identified. The prerequisites for the development of restaurant brands in social networks were evaluated in dynamics. A model of SMM promotion of a restaurant brand was formed, which is a checklist for creating a marketing management system in social networks. Disadvantages and advantages of commercial activities in the social media space which provide an adequate assessment of possible risks or opportunities for development have been characterised. Specific steps to forming the SMM management system and evaluating individual agendas were studied. Directions for the development of the SMM management system based on the usage of a certain strategy, formed on ambitions of business founders and goals of the restaurant management, were offered. Prospects for further research are a thorough study of the methodology and the approbation of SMM management effectometry tools, which can be supplemented with practical insights from restaurant business entities. Conclusions and discussion. The conducted research demonstrated the relevance of SMM management, as it allows to study and scientifically substantiate the areas of activity in the digital space, which is a necessary condition for maintaining the consumer’s loyalty and preventing reputational losses for restaurant business entities. The sources used in the study confirm the importance of promoting the restaurant brand and its product in social networks, which is an element of the marketing management system of the business entity.

Social spaces: from Georg Simmel to Erving Goffman

Focusing on the concept of social space in the writings of three sociologists, Georg Simmel, Robert E. Park, and Erving Goffman, this article examines the classic theoretical formulations of social spaces in the tradition of the Chicago School of Sociology. For Simmel and the Chicago School, the foundation of social spaces lies in the social interactions among actors, and social entities and structures emerge from these interaction processes. This theoretical tradition emphasizes the interdependence of physical space and social space, highlighting two featured assumptions about social space: endogeneity and temporality. It also focuses on the relationship between spaces and human emotions.

Expressing the Spatial Concepts of Interior Spaces in Residential Buildings of Huizhou, China: Narrative Methods of Wood-Carving Imagery

Expressing the Spatial Concepts of Interior Spaces in Residential Buildings of Huizhou, China: Narrative Methods of Wood-Carving Imagery

Analyzing the role of social value in megaprojects: toward a new performance framework

PurposeMegaprojects stimulate and challenge public opinion across countries, generating extensive reactions from citizens. Given their ability to attract public attention, they may also influence public participation in collective choices and political decision-making. These issues are relevant for evaluating projects, but are unfortunately rarely discussed in the managerial literature. This study aims to open up a debate on social issues and how they could be taken into account within management studies.Design/methodology/approachThis study carried out a systematic review of the literature on the social impact of megaprojects to identify different research areas related to the evaluation of megaprojects from a social perspective.FindingsThis study identified three different research areas related to the evaluation of megaprojects from a social perspective: the role of power and social issues; infrastructure and social space; and stakeholder engagement and endorsement.Originality/valueThis paper underlines the need to go beyond current understanding of the social impacts of megaprojects and calls for a more interdisciplinary research agenda.

Image-centrism in Africa’s political communication: a social semiotic analysis of self-presentation practices by women political candidates in Kenya’s social media space

ABSTRACT This study explores self-visual presentation practices by female political candidates on Facebook during Kenya’s political campaigns that culminated in the national elections of 2022. The unit of analysis is the Facebook profile image of the women leaders. Image-centrism is operationalized as the extent to which ‘the image’ becomes the primary mode of self-presentation in political communication discourse. The study adopts a social semiotic approach to image interpretation postulated by Roland Barthes (1972. Mythologies. (A. Lavers. Trans) (Original work published 1957), 1977. Rhetoric of the image. In Image, music, text (pp. 32–51). Hill and Wang) and Kress and van Leeuwen (1996. Reading images: The grammar of visual design. Routledge, 2006. Reading images: The grammar of visual design (2nd ed.). Routledge). Using Kress and van Leeuwen’s approach, images are studied as ‘linguistic codes’ that have their own ‘grammatical’ structure. Barthes’s approach explores the cultural dimension of the images. The argument here is that visual communication is context-bound, and the theoretical premise laid is that politics is given direction, shape, and impetus by the culture of a people. In order to understand visual political communication in Kenya, therefore, the study analyses and interprets images from the lens of the wider African cultural contexts within which this communication takes place. The overarching questions in this study include: How did female politicians in Kenya strategically use Facebook images for self-representation during the political campaigns in 2022? How have women politicians in Kenya interwoven cultural ideology with visual political communication on their Facebook pages? The ultimate conclusion is that political images not only serve as discourses for communicating political ideas and making political statements, but they also serve as self-representation modes as well as cultural manifestation codes that illuminate specific societal concepts.

Purchase spillovers from the metaverse to the real world: The roles of social presence, trialability, and customer experience

AbstractThe promise of the metaverse as a collective, virtual, and shared social space is revolutionizing digital retail. This study provides groundbreaking insights into customer experience in immersive metaverse environments, as well as into how these experiences on metaverse platforms influence customers' real‐world consumption behaviors. Drawing upon data from metaverse platform users in the US, this study identifies the specific antecedents of a positive customer experience on metaverse platforms, including the role of social presence and trialability. Further, it demonstrates the potential for purchase spillovers from the metaverse to traditional retail channels, extending the omnichannel retail literature. In addition, it examines how early‐stage versus long‐term users of the metaverse shape users' intentions to revisit metaverse platforms. Based on our results, we offer a comprehensive model of customers' metaverse behaviors, which may be used to predict and enhance customers' purchase intentions across channels. Our results also demonstrate that the metaverse is not merely a parallel digital retail channel but instead an influential extension of the customers' real‐world consumption. From a managerial perspective, we offer metaverse operators and retail brand managers insights into how an engaging and immersive customer experience in the metaverse can be developed to support metaverse platform growth, and targeted brand strategies that translate into real‐world gain for both the brand and the customer. The findings suggest that metaverse platforms must deliver customer experiences at a very high level to prevent stagnation in metaverse usage intentions; therefore, managers can confidently continue investing in relevant strategies to fuel metaverse platform growth.

Elites, bodies, and gender: Women’s appearance as class distinction

Despite the importance of both gender and elites in contemporary social life, few empirical works examine gender among the elite. With a focus on embodiment, we develop a gendered theory of elite display, grounded in ethnographic observations of two elite spaces in which women are prominent: VIP clubs and philanthropy galas in the U.S. and Europe. Using a Goffmanian perspective, we examine the micro-dynamics through which elite bodies express status, in particular for women. We argue that, in elite social spaces, women’s bodies signify wealth, and their bodily rituals and displays concretize status distinctions. To do so, we analyze the management of bodies backstage, frontstage, and off-stage, showing that a hallmark of elite display is the careful obfuscation of differences and gaps between backstage and frontstage spaces, which serves to naturalize the status superiority of elites.

Research on the Construction Path of Rural Public Cultural Space from the Perspective of Rural Revitalization---- Based on the investigation and thinking of the Rural Cultural Auditorium in Zhejiang

In the new era, solving "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" problems is the top priority of the Party's work. We should adhere to the important measure of "rural revitalization strategy". Rural revitalization requires both shaping and casting the soul. Cultural revitalization is not only an important part of rural revitalization, but also the source and soul of vitality to realize comprehensive rural revitalization. As an important carrier and external manifestation of rural cultural revitalization, rural public cultural space plays an important role in the construction of rural spiritual civilization. Based on this, through field investigation, questionnaire survey and data analysis of the representative rural public cultural space carrier-rural cultural auditorium in Zhejiang Province, this paper analyzes the achievements and problems of the construction of rural public cultural space in Zhejiang Province, which are mainly reflected from the following aspects. In view of three kinds of problems in the process of constructing rural public cultural space, they are unreasonable spatial planning and resource utilization in physical dimension, incomplete mechanism and shallow value connotation in spiritual dimension, as well as one-way output of culture and single and isolated participants in social dimension, this paper puts forward corresponding construction paths and methods. First, we should scientifically plan space and integrate spatial resources in the process of constructing physical space; second, we should build a long-term mechanism and create cultural symbols in the process of constructing spiritual space; third, in the process of constructing social space, we should realize the transformation to two-way interaction mode and cooperate with multiple power subjects to participate in the construction of rural public cultural space.

At the Heart of the Mothercrystal: Final Fantasy XIV’s Approach to Localization and Lore as a Virtual Contact Zone

<p>Virtual worlds by nature of their persistence and ability to have multiple simultaneous users in the same space can act as contact zones, defined by Mary Louse Pratt as a "social space where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination," (1991, p. 34). One affordance of virtual worlds in constructing the contact zone is the ability for the developer to use localization to bridge language gaps between a user and the virtual world and, to some extent, between players who have a shared understanding of the virtual world. This understanding extends to the properties of objects and locations and any narrative lore or background in the world. However, localization can be a double-edged sword, with choices in translation and localization leading to confusion among virtual world users and conflict between users and developers. </p><p>Language impacts two aspects of the virtual contact zone. For one, players communicate using languages they are proficient in, using whatever affordances are available in the interface and paratextual platforms, such as the official forums and social mediaplatforms like Reddit and Tumblr. For another, the world itself is awash in language. That text manifests itself in gameplay elements from user abilities and item names to more narrative elements such as character names, dialogue, and written story and worldbuilding elements. These textual and narrative components, called "lore," are essential in contextualizing virtual spaces. Lore helps build the virtual world beyond the actual mechanics and interactions within a virtual space. Lore gives users a sense of not just place but of geography, not just time, but of history, and not just context for players but their place within the story of the virtual world. Lore offers players motivation for playing in addition to traditional gameplay motivators such as exploration, achieving, socializing, and defeating enemies or other players (Yee, 2006; Bartle, 1996) to interact with the world. </p><p>This paper focuses on the case of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (FFXIV), an MMORPG initially released in 2013, its production, approaches to localization,and how it contributes to building a "virtual contact zone." In looking at specific instances where controversies in translation and localization led to confusion and conflict among the participants and developers of the game, this case study illustrates the role of localization in games beyond translation and acculturation. Localization not only serves as the linguistic bridge among members of the contact zone but, in the case of online games where world-building and narrative are important aspects for immersion and play, creates shared experiences and understandings of that virtual world among all members of the virtual contact zone.</p>

From an Enclosure to Human-Scaled Encounters: Articulating the Notion of Third Space in the Vishwakarma Community Temple, Penang

Abstract The Arulmigu Kamatchi Amman Devasthanam, located on Jalan Dato Keramat, in Penang, Malaysia provides entry into the cultural world of Pathars, the traditional Tamil goldsmiths who have long established their business in Penang. The continuity of this temple is studied through its spatial attributes and social impact in anchoring collective community experience Primary data was acquired through ethnography and secondary data was drawn from a document and photo review. The analysis provides a narrative account of the temple’s mandapa as a social space that facilitates the hybridity of identities that grow from this temple. As a representation of Bhabha’s Third Space and emanation of Lefebvre’s “space triad”, the mandapa within this temple fosters the lived experience of its users through bodily encounters, to renegotiate and reimagine their culture and identity that has been shaped by colonialism, as well as the transnational movement of people, culture, and memories.

Assessing Users’ Demand for Library Space: Insights from an Architecture School

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a post-occupancy evaluation to assess users’ feedback on the use of the architecture school library at Thammasat University, Thailand. The proposed study also has a specific objective: to explore users’ demand for library space in terms of academic library attributes. A case study of the library in the Faculty of Architecture and Planning was conducted at Thammasat University. Multiple data collection methods were used, including document analysis, a questionnaire survey, a workshop, and focus group interviews, to gather information on users’ demand for the library space. The findings confirm the relevance of the variables in the conceptual model from previous studies, which encompass three key attributes regarding users’ demand for library space: physical, social, and digital spaces. Functional obsolescence and changing learning approaches are revealed as dominant influential factors affecting users’ demand for library space. The connection between post-occupancy evaluation (POE) and pre-design evaluation (PDE) in the redevelopment of a real estate project is considered as a shift from performance measurement to performance management, assisting in establishing agreed-upon performance goals for the operation. This study’s findings, derived from a single case study, do affect affect generalisability. However, the study provides insights into academic library design and renovation by emphasising the alignment of library spaces with user needs for improved service effectiveness and user satisfaction. The research introduces an integration of POE and PDE, proposing a methodological framework for future library space redevelopment that could contribute to the broader discussion on library design and user experience.

Algorithmic Doors to Community and the Trap of Visibility: TikTok for Harm Reduction Activism in the U.S. Overdose Crisis

Opioid-related overdose death continues to be a public health crisis in the United States, reaching a new peak in 2021 with more than 100,000 people dying of drug overdose; 75% of these deaths involved an opioid. Naloxone, often known by the brand name Narcan®, can be easily administered to prevent opioid overdose death. While naloxone is a central harm reduction tool, it has generated controversy as discussions of its use have been framed by longstanding stigmas associated with drug use. Critics have framed it as a “moral hazard” that encourages drug use, stigmatizing its distribution and uptake. Harm reductionists have responded by countering misinformation about drug use and harm reduction and humanizing people who use drugs. Social media platforms have become key sites for these debates. These are digital social spaces in which individuals may fuel stigma and/or build community with others by enacting identities, exchanging knowledge, and bonding over shared experiences. TikTok, a video-based platform, has become an active space for community-building around harm reduction. This article examines the experiences of people who post about naloxone on TikTok. We draw on thematic analyses of semistructured, open-ended interviews with 13 TikTok users who tagged posts with #naloxonesaveslives or #narcansaveslives hashtags from June 2020 to April 2023. Specifically, we explore how these individuals understand and leverage TikTok's association, creative, and interactive affordances as “doors” to build harm reduction community and to educate others about drug use and harm reduction. We also explore how they navigate the “traps” of visibility on TikTok that pose challenges to using the platform for harm reduction activism: stigma, burnout, mental distress, and digital silencing. Finally, we consider the implications of our findings for future research and practice related to digital harm reduction activism.

Mobility and the Social Differentiation of Rural Youth in Australia

Geographical mobility has become an integral element of the biographical trajectories of young people from rural areas. In this paper, we contend that theories of rural-urban inequality tend to unduly homogenise rural social groups and are insufficient to understand rural youth out-migration as a selective rather than universal practice. We draw on a statistical analysis of the social differentiation of rural youth mobility in Australia to argue that sociologists gain from further theorising the social differentiation of rural society. Empirically, we find that classed resources and stratified dispositions toward one’s future life are important properties associated with outward mobility. Theoretically, we propose the concept of rural social space to make sense of these patterns. Rural social space describes the material and symbolic hierarchies that structure the social differentiation of rural society. We conclude by suggesting how future research could refine the conceptualisation of rural social space proposed in this paper, by further considering the opportunities, practices and representations that distinguish the lives of different groups of rural young people.

Using interpersonal meaning making resources to build relationships and improve engagement in online teacher professional learning

AbstractAs professional learning and development (PLD) for teachers moves online, it is increasingly important to consider what constitutes effective provision. While models of effective PLD abound, online PLD faces challenges to participant engagement. In particular, the critical need to build and maintain relationships in professional learning is complicated by the geographic and temporal distribution of online participants as well as the nuances of the technology in use. We argue that online PLD occurs in collaborative text-spaces within learning management systems, social media spaces and their attendant learning objects such as forums. As such, persistent challenges to engagement in online PLD may be met by considering the language-based interpersonal affordances of these text-spaces. We employ a small-scale corpus study and appraisal analysis to demonstrate the value of Systemic Functional Linguistics in addressing the challenges of online learning, particularly how the meaning making resources of the interpersonal metafunction can be used to improve participant engagement.

Women Empowerment in the Digital Age : Significance of New Media

The worldwide scene was totally altered by the technological revolution brought about by new media, the internet, blogs, and social networking sites and influenced the fundamental framework of societies, fostering more conversations, arguments, and intellectual production while enhancing the democratic capacity of governments. It is widely believed that new media can be an effective tool for women's development and empowerment, moreover gives women a voice and a forum to communicate their thoughts and concerns without fear of prejudice or retaliation. Women make up a large portion of the global population, and as science and technology advance, so too does the status of women, which is changing quickly. However, we cannot deny that there is a world in which women face numerous forms of discrimination, marginalization, and oppression, new media provides innovative spaces and platforms to address and effectively overcome such discrimination. These are being developed as spaces that are democratic in nature, embodying freedom and equality, while enabling a liberal space for women to speak out. It is relevant that other spaces do not have the same potential and capacity as the new media to become women's media, even if sometimes gender inequalities exist. This paper also examines the ways in which new social media spaces are the cause of women's advancement and the challenges they face.

Cultural heritage tourism at film-related tourism sites: staged and existential authenticity at Hengdian World Studios

ABSTRACT The trend of incorporating culture and heritage into various aspects of tourism, such as film-related tourism, is gaining momentum. In addition to the film-related attractions, film-related tourism can encourage tourists’ engagement with cultural heritage tourism and consumption of heritage products at the destination. Examining the case of Hengdian World Studios (China), the world’s largest outdoor film studio and film shooting base, this paper discusses how cultural heritage tourism is induced at a film-related tourism destination as well as how the tourism destination represents authenticity and how tourists perceive such representations. Hengdian World Studios simulates several real heritage sites in different areas of China for screen media productions as well as for tourist consumption. This paper examines the concepts of ‘staged authenticity’ (MacCannell [1973]. Staged authenticity: Arrangements of social space in tourist settings. American Journal of Sociology, 79(3), 589–603. https://doi.org/10.1086/225585) and ‘existential authenticity’ (Wang [1999]. Rethinking authenticity in tourism experience. Annals of Tourism Research, 26(2), 349–370. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0160-7383(98)00103-0) in the context of tourism studies to understand cultural heritage tourism at film-related tourism sites. The discussion is based on research undertaken at Hengdian World Studios between 2018 and 2023 drawing on ethnographic methods and online interviews with 50 tourists. This paper contributes to the understanding of authenticity issues in tourism studies from different perspectives and the interconnections between film-related tourism and cultural heritage tourism.

‘Thinna’ as a quasi-public space: the case of leather homeworkers in Southern India

ABSTRACT Homeworkers form a significant part of the informal economy in the global South, are over-represented by women, and are defined by their place of work, that is, their ‘home’. As production and social reproduction intersect in the private sphere of the home, a woman’s mobility and access to public spaces is limited and gendered. Within this reality, in the narrow streets of the small town of Ambur in Southern India, women homeworkers stitching leather footwear access ‘public’ entities through their ‘thinna’: a porch/veranda-like structure at the entrance of the house. This article explores thinna as a quasi-public space, arguing that even while spatially attached to a private home, it allows women to place themselves and to participate in the realm of the public. Based on in-depth interviews with 62 homeworkers, I show that women homeworkers utilise the thinna to make themselves ‘visible’ – physically, socially, economically, and politically. They sit here not only for better lighting but also to chat with neighbouring homeworking women, thereby keeping themselves informed on what other women are stitching and their piece rates. They engage economically with the contractor(s), using it to showcase their stitching skills. Here, a local civil society organisation convenes meetings to organise them and here leather company representatives ‘visit’ homeworkers. For homeworkers, thus, thinna provides a public and social space where the professional and personal imbricate.

Rural Women’s Response to Climate Change: An Exploratory Study of Women’s Grassroot Network in Odisha

The emergence of Feminist Political Ecological (FPE) position allows to rethink about social institutions like Self Help Groups (SHGs) as foundations for building green movements through everyday practice. The collective voice that has helped them emerge economically self-sufficient is reflected in their decision making, when the larger cause of climate change or environmental decision-making are involved. It is time that their actions permeating the ecology and environment gains credence and such coalitions provide ground as movements for achieving the larger collective agenda. Idea of SHGs as social capital helped the marginalized women create different ‘gendered subjectivities’ and endowed them with a collective voice, be it conservation of their own ecological settings or confronting the social system. The case of Climate Credit Pilot Project and/or conservation of indigenous seed varieties in remote villages of Odisha bear testimony to women’s consciousness regarding climate mitigation initiatives and the meaningful actions associated with environmental justice. Such interventions show that the embedment of economic, social and cultural values of SHG groups align with their instinct for attaining a larger goal of environment protection through household and community level actions. The gendered subjectivities including increased social consciousness among women, better access to new information, up-skilling has made them better and enlightened decision makers. The practice of joint or consensual action by SHG collectives enable them to address multi-scalar issues like climate change. However, the broader agenda of social and economic empowerment has to align with their decision making power relating to their immediate ecology and environment. In this context, the proposed study will probe emerging social consciousness of women on climate change issues, while examining their larger environmental responsibility in local situation, wherein the women remain at the receiving end. This is a field-based exploratory study of women from subsistence and indigenous communities of three districts in Odisha which interrogates the role of SHGs in creating a social space for women to engage with the question of environmental decision making. The study intends to analyse the field data in relation to environmental rights, responsibilities and knowledge of rural and Adivasi women within the institution of SHGs. It aims to formulate the concept, i.e., can SHGs be seen as co-linear spaces which needs to be strengthened as bearers of green movements at the local level as a response to the climate crisis.

International students' employability: a language socialization perspective

PurposeThis study introduces a non-orthodox approach to the dominant policy-based approaches to graduate employability through contextualizing international students’ everyday experiences within their educational and wider structural contexts of the labour market.Design/methodology/approachThe study used narrative frames to collect data from 180 international students from China, Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Nepal at a New Zealand tertiary institution. Narrative frames as a research tool in educational contexts are used to ellicit the experiences of individuals in the form of a story as participants reflect on their experience. The frames use sentence starters to draw responses from participants about their experiences (Barkhuizen and Wette, 2008).FindingsThis study argues that, through a socialization process, international students develop identities that fit an ever-changing labour market. This process is catalysed by a higher education landscape that produces career-ready subjects capable of appropriating different social spaces that prepare students and graduates to enter the labour market. Further, it argues that graduate employability should be understood as a complex process through which students and graduates socialise themselves through negotiating the socioacademic spaces by (1) familiarising themselves with the dominant workspace norms, (2) positioning themselves as more career-ready individuals, and (3) imagigining employable selves capable of meeting the needs of the job market.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has limitations. Only one data collection source has been used. It would have been great to use narrative frames along with interviews. In addition, the data would have been stronger if the researcher could have used classroom observations, which could be a future initiative.Practical implicationsThis study could provide practical insights to tertiary institutions about international students’ developing capabilities and identities so they could better prepare themselves for the world of work. Further, this study provides insights about some of the challenges that international students face in tertiary contexts to become career-ready. Hence, educators could employ strategies to better support these learners in their everyday learning spaces. This study also has useful benefits for future and current international students and international graduates regarding what investments they need to make so they can better socialize themselves in their tertiary and workplace practices.Social implicationsThis study has social implications. It helps international students better understand the social, cultural and academic expectations of their host countries. Therefore, they could better socialize themselves into those practices and contribute more effectively to their academic and workplace communities. The study also helps academic and workplace institutions strategize more effectively to address the social and cultural needs of international graduates. The study also contributes to the social and cultural understanding of the teachers that engage with international students on a daily basis by helping them devise activities that better address these students’ and graduates’ needs.Originality/valueThe study adds theoretical and methodological value to the debates around graduate employability. It includes the voices of 180 students and unravels their day-to-day experiences of capability building and employability development from their own perspectives.