CIVICA Honours Seminars 2026/27

Demographic ageing and population change are pressing problems in a growing number of countries. This course introduces participants to core demographic theories, data, measures, and methods. We will learn how to calculate and correctly interpret demographic indicators such as the fertility rate, the mortality rate, and measures that can be derived from migration statistics. Moreover, we will learn how to conduct population projections (using the cohort-component model). There is also time devoted to debating policy-relevant themes. For example, is population decline a challenge for local and national governments? Should we worry about the world's population continuing to grow in the face of climate change? What would be appropriate policies to address the challenges that come with demographic ageing and population decline?

Prerequisites for participation

There are no specific prerequisites for taking this course. Many of the exercises given in class can be done with Excel. However, some R-skills are needed as we dive deeper into demographic methods. We will provide a “prep-course” for students who do not have any R-skills. Please contact the instructor in advance if you want to participate in the pre-course.

The Sciences Po Urban School offers an Honor Seminar on negotiation and governance, with a specific focus on urban planning and complex governance settings in Europe. The seminar aims to encourage the meeting between practice and research, as well as to help students develop new capabilities that enable a better understanding on how different organizational or governance structures affect policy-making dynamics.

Another goal of the seminar is to support the professional integration of master’s students. It will focus on negotiation, mediation, and dispute-resolution mechanisms, all of which constitute a set of strategic skills in cities and regions notably useful for students who will take up careers as managers, city administrators, civil servants, diplomats, and policymakers.

The seminar will help students to:

• Gain an intellectual understanding of negotiators’ behaviour and central concepts in negotiation as they apply in the urban policy-making environment;

• Improve their ability to analyse conflict situations and learn how to develop a toolkit of valuable skills, strategies, and approaches;

• In specific, learn how urban planning stakes can be confronted and integrated to other contradictory injunctions.

Methodological approach:

The Seminar will be based on active pedagogy, blending different methodologies such as simulations and exercises, readings, in-depth class discussions, and exchanges with key practitioners. The course will follow a three-step sequential approach:

1. Experiential Learning through Simulations: in each session, students will engage in an exercise or a simulation about a critical aspect of negotiation and conflict resolution.

2. Debriefing, Feedback and Self-Examination: after the practice, the instructor will lead a discussion that analyses students’ performance so that the class can explore the relationship between different strategies and outcomes and learn from everyone’s experiences.

3. Discussion of research findings and practical examples: during the last part of each session, the instructor, with the contribution of practitioners, will discuss with students the relevant research findings and practical examples connected with the seminar’s key learning points.

Prerequisites for participation

Current Master degree students with strong demonstrated interest in Ecological Transitions matters and Urban issues.

This CIVICA Honours course examines European politics in a period of political change and growing populist influence. It introduces the internal and external changes that are shaping Europe, then explores the state of democracy, the sources of support for populist parties, and the impact of those changing dynamics on the European Parliament elections. It also introduces how crises test European solidarity and governance and how EU institutions respond to crises and changing political landscapes. Furthermore, it also introduces the flexible formats that are frequently used in European governance—like the coalitions of the willing. The course concludes by assessing possible paths for European politics. Using contemporary case studies and debates, the course will try and help students develop tools to analyze political developments at both national and European levels.

Prerequisites for participation

• Students should have good knowledge of English and must demonstrate familiarity with EU politics, or at least with the EU institutional framework and policy making processes

• Critical thinking and openness to dialogue, since the seminar requires reflection on personal perspectives and societal structures.

• Willingness to engage respectfully in discussions about sensitive and sometimes contested issues.

The debate over European strategic autonomy, tech sovereignty and the EU’s role as a geostrategic player sits at the core of today’s policy agenda. For a long time, the discussion centered on competences and the conferral of powers between the EU and its Member States. Today’s challenges increasingly arise from dependence on third countries. This dependence is best understood as infrastructural — spanning the technological stack, from compute and chips to connectivity, energy and critical raw materials — and it places the EU at real risk of weaponized interdependence. This CIVICA Honours Seminar examines that shift through a triangle of interrelated dimensions: the technology stack the EU runs on, the infrastructures that carry it and the security implications both produce.
Drawing on the Draghi, Letta and Niinistö reports, recent CJEU and Commission practice, and the post-2022 wave of industrial-policy legislation, the course asks what “open strategic autonomy” means in practice. It runs as three days of substantive discussion plus one social event in Florence, connecting medieval infrastructure to today’s dependencies.

Day 1 sets the scene and asks students to build a visual representation of tech and security dependencies using AI tools.
Day 2 maps the what, who, and how of the EU’s technological dependencies and the Commission’s industrial-policy response; the final substantive day examines dependency as an existential security risk and closes with a policy-oriented negotiation simulation.

Prerequisites for participation

None. The seminar is open to students from STG and selected students from the CIVICA network. No prior legal or technical background is required.