Welcome to the website of the Gouvernance des Territoires Urbains (GTU)/Governance of Urban Territories Major at Sciences Po Lille.
Course objective
The Gouvernance des Territoires Urbains (GTU)/Governance of Urban Territories Major aims to prepare students to analyze the transformations in local public action and the changes affecting institutional (cities, inter-municipalities, neighborhoods) and functional territories (watersheds, lived territories). The goal is to enable them to play a key role in the construction, analysis, and evaluation of urban public policies.
The GTU major offers multidisciplinary teachings (economics, law, history, political science, and sociology) that rely on diverse pedagogical methods (professional workshops, research papers or expertise reports, investigative work, study trips, etc.). This program allows students to explore various public action sectors: urban development policies, digital, cultural, health, social, sports, tourism policies, etc.
Main career opportunities
The GTU program is an apprenticeship-based program (M2).From M1, the emphasis is on professionalisation to facilitate students’ integration into the world of work, particularly in :
- Decentralized authorities
- State services
- Urban planning agencies
- Social housing providers
- Mixed economy companies
- Chamber of commerce
- Research offices
- Consulting firms
- Head of the major
Head of the GTU major
François Benchendikh
Senior lecturer in public law | Qualified to direct research (Habilité à diriger des recherches, HDR)
Research Areas: Decentralization law; urban planning law; public contract law
E-mail : francois.benchendikh@mgtu_user
Editorial by the head of the major
Grand standigne
One day we will demolish
these beautiful, so modern buildings
we will break the windows
made of plexiglass or ultraglass
we will dismantle the stoves
built at polytechnic
we will sever the collective antennas
of television
we will unscrew the elevators
we will annihilate the trash chutes
we will grind the heaters
we will pulverize the fridges
when these buildings age
with the infinite weight of the sadness of things
Raymond Queneau, Courir les rues, Gallimard La Pléiade
What governance for urban territories in the future?
Places of technical, economic, social, ecological, digital, cultural innovation… urban territories have become, for several years, privileged spaces generating new ways of living, moving, consuming, exchanging, significantly impacting lifestyles.
Urban spaces thus crystallize societal changes and clearly illustrate the adaptations they had to make. The rise of local governments, the repositioning of local states, the importance of the role played by European institutions, the growing influence of urban service companies, the significance of social movements… are all public and private actors contributing to the creation of urban public policies. Consequently, urban territories face significant crises – climate, energy, demographic, but also health – that they must confront and attempt to resolve.
Therefore, through this alternating training in the fifth year, you will be able to analyze the diversity of urban territories’ challenges in France and abroad, as well as the transformations they undergo due to the evolution of the contemporary world.
I invite you to explore this site to discover the teachings, career paths, and access conditions for this new program. You will also find a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section that will answer some of your queries.
François Benchendikh