While advances in participatory planning have led in many cases to the more inclusive rebuilding of informal settlements, the debate regarding participatory planning has focused largely on the improvement of current informal settlements without asking “what next”. Declining living conditions following settlement consolidation, however, provide evidence of the potential shortfalls of temporary participatory approaches. Drawing on an ethnographic case study of a former informal settlement in Iztapalapa, Mexico City, this paper analyses the erosion of resident participation in neighbourhood development over 40 years. Comparisons between residents’ accounts of neighbourhood formation, mostly in the 1980s, and contemporary experiences show a gradual decrease in resident engagement. The data collected in 2016–2017 highlight this diminishing local participation and suggest that the disappearance of earlier local practices of engagement is linked in various ways to the failure of formally supported practices of citizen participation. The paper shows what can be learnt from residents’ memories of transforming informal settlements.

虽然参与式规划的进步在许多情况下导致了非正式住区的更具包容性的重建，但关于参与式规划的辩论主要集中在改善当前的非正式住区，而没有问“下一步做什么”。然而，定居点整合后生活条件的下降提供了临时参与式方法潜在不足的证据。本文利用对墨西哥城伊斯塔帕拉帕前非正式定居点的人种学案例研究，分析了 40 年来居民参与社区发展的侵蚀。居民对社区形成的描述（主要是 1980 年代）与当代经验之间的比较显示居民参与度逐渐下降。2016-2017 年收集的数据突显了当地参与的减少，并表明早期当地参与实践的消失与正式支持的公民参与实践的失败在各种方面有关。这篇论文展示了可以从居民对改造非正规住区的记忆中学到什么。