Investigating the spatiality of sites of youth ĀDDĀ (informal social hangout) in changing urban landscape: a study of Rajshahi, Bangladesh

Recent urban transformation in the Global South, driven by globalization, commodification, and a logic of development, is producing homogenized cities and increasingly regulated public spaces. Within this context, the Bengali practice of adda (āddā), understood as prolonged informal, convivial conversation, embodies a form of non-instrumental sociability that resists commodification and control. Although a historically and cultural rooted practice, scholarly attention to adda has been limited. The spatial dimensions of adda, the characteristics of its sites, or how changing urban conditions influence the practice, especially among youth remain under-explored. This study investigates the spatiality of youth adda in the rapidly transforming city of Rajshahi, Bangladesh. It seeks to determine which factors influence the choice of adda sites, and how urban change is affecting the sites of adda. The research adopts a mixed-methods design guided by critical realist paradigm, combining questionnaire surveys, in-depth interviews, observation. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were employed to uncover spatial and behavioral features responsible for the preference for a site of adda. Public spaces operated or appropriated by certain informal businesses were found to be the most popular sites of adda for the youth. It was also found that choice of adda sites is influenced most strongly by spatial features, but behavioral features and some demographic features also played a part. Additionally, it found that the changing urban landscape is creating disruptions in sites of youth adda in the form of growing restructuring of urban form, increased regulation and encroaching businesses. By examining adda as a form of everyday spatial practice, this study contributes to the understanding of public life and youth geography in South Asian cities and offers guidance for urban design conducive to convivial socialization practices such as adda.