Evolving informality as an urban cultural phenomenon: the case of evening food streets in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Purpose In Dhaka, dynamic spaces are produced through the everyday informal practices of common people, street vending being one such practice. This way of appropriating space through vending has seemed to evolve, as a new trend of street food vendors occupying a section of a street in the evening has emerged. The aim of this research is to investigate the informal activity of street food vending as a part of transforming culture in the global south. This paper focuses on the cultural shift from street food as a supplementary activity to street food as the main primary activity in a public space and its manifestations in space and time. Bailey Road, a secondary street in an affluent mixed-use area of Dhaka, Bangladesh, is taken as the area of investigation. Design/methodology/approach The study follows an empirical research method. First, the nature of informality, particularly in the case of traditional street vending, is studied through observation and existing literature. Then the shift in the spatial practice of street vending is investigated through participant observation and interviews, as well as secondary research. Findings The findings suggest that the notion of informality has undergone significant transformation, and the spatial practices suggest a hybrid condition between formality and informality that has produced a peculiar way of appropriating space. Originality/value While there has been a significant volume of research on street-food vending focusing on the socio-economic and political aspects, the relation between the cultural aspects of street-food vending and its spatial production has remained largely unexplored.