Spectacular cities and mobile subjects: International students and Melbourne

Abstract

This chapter looks at how a life in Melbourne influences the subjectivities of international students. It focuses on how international students encounter difference, use technologies to mediate their urban experiences, and engage with Melbourne as a “cultural economy” full of public art. Communication creates a “real” in Lacan’s sense, something that cannot be communicated. This can be understood as any kind of political antagonism that threatens the communicative status quo and its basis in frictionless consumerism. In general, literature on international students focuses on the relationship between social network composition and levels of loneliness and homesickness. A “communicative capit..