Master in Geography and Spatial Planning

An important aspect of any Master programme in Geography and Spatial planning is its fieldwork. Fieldwork offers students an enriching and inspiring opportunity for experiential, problem-based and collaborative active learning. The field is truly our living laboratory.  

In Luxembourg, we are uniquely positioned to undertake field classes on a Local, National, Regional and European scale. We use processes of familiarisation and defamiliarisation to both (1) discover anew local places and (2) engage with unfamiliar places in the Greater region and beyond.   

There are many benefits of urban fieldwork. It:  

1. Feeds our curiosity. 
2. Supports real-world geographical thinking. 
3. Provides a hands-on collaborative research process. 
4. Encourages the investigation of complex urban issues and processes in the real world. 
5. Enables informal opportunities for social interaction and collaboration.  

In our programme, a number of our courses support fieldwork. We investigate research debates and questions such as:  

• Exploring the dynamics of local businesses and community initiatives aiming for sustainable practices 
• Evaluating the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of spatial planning for sustainable development, and exploring how they manifest in Luxembourg 

Luxembourg’s unique geographical location in Europe provides the opportunity to use field classes to support comparative thinking and collaborative working. We use Luxembourg and the Greater Region as well as Europe as a living laboratory. 

In times where students are under great financial pressure, we incorporate the costs of field classes into the budget of the programme. In addition, we will strive to ensure a sustainability approach to our field classes to minimise the impact of the department’s carbon footprint. 

Students doing fieldwork in Belval.