Final presentation "Conception of a study trip to the United Kingdom"

THE PERIOD OF RENDERING OF GROUP PROJECTS HAS JUST BEGUN. DISCOVER THE WORK OF OUR STUDENTS.

The project: Conception of a 5-day study trip to the United Kingdom on the theme "After Brexit: The United Kingdom facing its territorial fractures"

Commissioning organisation: Institut des Hautes Etudes d’Aménagement des Territoires (IHEDATE)

Students: Louis Lhomme, Javier Morales Lopez, Basile Richefort and Gautier Stevens from the master Regional and Urban Strategy

Work realised: 

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« This project focused on one main mission: the organisation of the study mission in the United Kingdom, part of an annual cycle of conferences and workshops focusing on the theme of “money geographies”. The five-day trip took place from 8 to 12 April in London, Manchester and Stoke-on-Trent, with the theme “After Brexit, sewing the territory back together”. A complex approach given the current British political situation.

However, our approach was not so much focused on understanding the exit process from the European Union, but rather in the analysis of the fractures it revealed. For this reason, the variety in the choice of study mission locations seemed central. The territorial fractures being the most visible and the most sensitive, given the geography of the vote leave, we had already made the choice, with the team of IHEDATE, to build the trip around three stages. First of all, London, the capital, inserted in the dynamic and growing globalization. Manchester, a former industrial town which has now been converted, is also dynamic. Finally, Stoke-on-Trent, the average town in Staffordshire, suffers from austerity and a difficult economic climate.

This first phase of development was based on extensive research in many fields: the political and economic history of the United Kingdom, the structure of public services, the evolution of the territorial map and the powers devolved, the effects of the Great Recession of 2008 and the austerity policies of the conservative governments since 2010.

Secondly, and on the basis of our research, we have developed a preliminary programme. This first structuring of the mission of the trip was accompanied by the contact of many stakeholders, and in January, a four-day pre-figuration trip that allowed us to strengthen the number of potential stakeholders, and to articulate the program more finely. Finally, from January to the end of March, we focused on strengthening the program and continually adding new stakeholders.

During the fact-finding mission, we managed the organizational logistics in coordination with the IHEDATE team. It’s been a very rewarding and formative week. We’ve learned a lot in a number of ways. From the point of view of the issues and major territorial issues in the United Kingdom in the first place through the comments of all the speakers. But also from a professional point of view, the fact-finding mission has enabled us to have an important role in the realization of all the activities, in the management of groups of people and speakers.

Finally, we made a presentation in Lyon on Friday, June 7. The goal was to revisit the trip with the listeners and engage in a collective reflection on the learnings we have all learned from it.

Read the final report. 

What is a group project?

Called also capstone or workgroup, this highlight of Master's degrees puts the students in professional situation. These have to answer to an order of a private or public structure on an urban or territorial problem (housing environment, planning, economic development, transport, mobility, etc.). 

During 5 to 9 months (according to the course), every team from 4 to 5 students works under the supervision of a tutor, a specialist of the handled question. The project ends in an oral presentation of the students to the commissioning organisation. This period of renditions takes place of the end of May to the middle of June.