Mapping participatory planning in Havana: patchwork legacies for a strengthened local governance

In 2019, Cuba approved a new political constitution that calls for deepening citizen participation to strengthen local governance. The emerging decentralization processes and the role of actors in urban development open possibilities inclusive planning. While is widely documented global South under Western liberal democracy regimes, participatory planning context Southern socialist cities such as Havana has been less scrutinized. This paper aims at mapping framings, trajectories legacies initiatives. Based on workshops desktop research, we find initiatives within are spatially dispersed, sporadic, lacking city level, occurring isolation neighbourhood level. We argue establishing sustained practices requires decision makers scale outwards upwards lessons learned from existing foster city-wide strategy.