Degree

BS (Social Sciences & Liberal Arts)

Faculty / School

School of Economics and Social Sciences (SESS)

Department

Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts

Date of Award

Spring 2026

Date of Submission

2026-07-21

Advisor

Dr. Ismat Abbas, Assistant Professor SSLA - SESS

Committee

Ms. Hajrah Rahman, Lecturer, Department of Social Sciences & Liberal Arts

Project Type

SSLA Culminating Experience

Access Type

Restricted Access

Keywords

Third Spaces, Community Spaces, Belonging, Urban Identity, Karachi

Abstract

Karachi is a vast, fragmented city of over 20 million people, where insecurity, privatization, and class division consistently limit access to public spaces. Yet within this fragmentation, the past decade has seen a visible rise in independently run community spaces including District 19, T2F, Kitab Ghar, Chai Master, Neutral, and more - operating as what sociologist Ray Oldenburg terms third places: informal social settings, distinct from home and work.

This study draws on ten semi-structured interviews, alongside site observations and analyses of each space's public self-representation, to ask how belonging and urban identity are produced in a fragmented city. Rather than treating these spaces as neutral, ready-made "third places," this study traces the specific, deliberate choices behind them: the personal motives that led each founder to build or take over their space, the values each refuses to compromise, the economic models that keep them open, and the risks each has to absorb.

With a focus on community spaces, the findings suggest that belonging is not simply provided; it is actively constructed and unevenly distributed. Read against Oldenburg's third place and Harvey and Lefebvre's right to the city, this study argues that Karachi's community spaces are best understood not as neutral ground, but as sites where a collective right to the city is being locally and continuously enacted. It is sustained only through the ongoing labour of the people who refuse to let them shut down.

Pages

61

Download

The full text of this document is only accessible to authorized users.

Share

COinS