A comparative overview of Latin American spatial governance and planning systems. Towards a research agenda

The chapter offers a comparative analysis of spatial governance and planning systems across ten Latin American countries – Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay – situating them within the region’s broader socio-political and institutional context. Drawing from the national case studies included in this volume, it identifies both convergences and divergences in legal frameworks, spatial planning instruments, and governance arrangements. The chapter highlights how spatial planning in Latin America is shaped by historical legacies, decentralization processes, urban informality, and persistent socio-spatial inequalities. It reveals a complex interplay between formal and informal institutional systems, where spatial governance and planning often unfolds through hybrid mechanisms and ‘other institutionalities’ that challenge conventional understandings of state-led governance. Through the lens of selected ‘repeated instances’, the chapter explores localized practices that demonstrate how communities, in the absence of robust institutional support, generate alternative planning tools and epistemologies. Three emerging trends are identified – grassroots-driven spatial governance, the proliferation of para-state instruments, and the incorporation of indigenous worldviews into planning discourse – that shall constitute as many cornerstones of a research agenda that embraces institutional plurality, emphasising local agency and contributing to a reconceptualization of planning theory from the perspective of the Global South.