Contrary to the frequent images that render the city as one of the last bastions of socialism and as a space suspended in time, Havana has been immersed in a postsocialist reworking of sorts for the past three decades. Using ethnographic methods and interdisciplinary approaches, this project has two main objectives: on the one hand, it charts how neoliberal paradigms and new global flows of capital are restructuring Havana in a top-down fashion; on the other, it explores contestations from below, drawing attention to citizens' agency in the creation of urban environments outside institutional frameworks. This project investigates the potential for people to reclaim their right not only to access the city's resources, but to actively participate in its production, thus securing more livable urban futures. It enhances our understanding of urban transformations in the Global South, and the struggles for socio-spatial justice these are generating.

2022

2025