Living in uncertainty : challenging the planning practice in and around informal settlements in Monterrey, Mexico

Technocratic planning approaches have been the rule in Latin America through the course of the 20th century. This approach assumes that the only valid planning practice is that done by experts. This top-down planning practice has been particularly harmful in contexts of informality, since this approach has failed to capture and enhance informal communities’ agency, skills, and resources. Residents in La Campana, like most informal settlements, rely on community organization and deliberation to deal with threats and challenges. On the other hand, planners need to engage in mutual learning processes that allows to build on informal communities’ positive aspects, as opposed to imposing technocratic knowledge. This dissertation contributes to informality and critical planning studies through the lens of communicative and participatory action research methodologies. As action research methodologies have a transformational component, my dissertation aims at finding creative paths to improve the relationship between the municipalities and their precarious communities to maximize well-being, understanding, and mutual working relationship, beyond a traditionally vertical governmental power. This dissertation’s unique contribution is the development of an action research process that fosters and enables a new relationship to emerge between the La Campana community members and planners, articulating the diverse knowledge(s) in place. Action research is often used in community-based knowledge generation and change efforts. On the other hand, it is also used as a tool for organizational change efforts within local government. However, less articulated is how to bridge the two. To test the contributions of this dissertation, I analyze planning documents and compare them with the updates in current discussion in Monterrey in regards to participatory approaches in informal settlements.