Member

Trained as a geographer and currently serving as a lecturer and researcher in urban planning, my research lies at the interface between geography, urban studies, and law. My work focuses on public policies and the instruments of public action. This leads me to investigate the effects of law and the legal designations of spaces, particularly within the framework of territorial planning documents. By adopting an approach centered on the tools of public action, I position my work at the intersection of several disciplines, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of public policy research. I collaborate with legal scholars, geographers, urban planners, architects, and landscape designers.

2012 PhD in Geography – University of Tours, “Territorial dimensions of urban heritage policies : tools, stakes and actors play in three cities of the Loire Valley (Angers, Tours et Orléans)”

2007 Master’s degree in Geography – University of Tours

2005 Bachelor’s degree in Geography – University of Tours

since 2020 Lecturer in Urban Planning – Université Paris Cité

2016 – 2020 Postdoctoral researcher in Geography – University of Tours, University of Angers, National School of Architecture of Lyon

2015 – 2016 Project Officer in Local Development – Pays de la Touraine côté Sud

2013 – 2015 Project Officer in Local Development – Regional Council of Centre-Val de Loire

2012 – 2013 Project Officer in Heritage Urban Planning and Landscapes – Association of Remarkable Sites and Cities of France

Participation in Research Projects

2025 – 2027 Geo-Legal” Research: Dialogues between Spatial Sciences and Legal Disciplines, Scientific workshop of CIST

This research project examines how territorial and legal sciences conceptualize space under positive law and the extent of law’s territorialization, alongside interdisciplinary dialogues (geography, planning, sociology, anthropology, law). Key issues include law’s territorialization—via partitioning, marking, spatial dimensions, or differentiated regimes—and the reciprocal legalization/judiciarization of territories by spatializing positive law.

Project website

2025 – 2027 Serious Games and Territories: Exploring Processes of Awareness, Planning, and Appropriation, Scientific workshop of CIST

The project aims to explore and showcase the richness of interactions between serious games and territories in all their diversity. In serious games, territories are often represented explicitly as visual and narrative settings, but they can also be managed within the gameplay when the issues involve biodiversity, risk management, or spatial planning. The characters (inhabitants, stakeholders, non-human entities, etc.) who occupy, traverse, defend, or exploit these spaces then become integral elements of the game.

Project website

2022 – 2025 Heritage and Tourism Labels in the Centre-Val de Loire: A Territorial Resource? (LAPTER), Regional project Centre-Val de Loire

The LAPTER project explores the utility of heritage and tourism labels as tools for territorial planning and local development, analyzing their integration into stakeholder strategies and the operational dynamics of labeling processes.

Project website

2018 – 2021 Heritage as a Common Good for Territorial Construction (PBC), Regional project Centre-Val de Loire

The project uncovers constructions of patrimonial common goods via territorializing processes, seeking enhanced integration of heritage resources into regional planning tools while positioning residents as meta-actors in development.

2015 – 2019 The Patrimonial PLU: New Regulatory Tools to Reconcile the Preservation of Built Heritage and Sustainable Urban Development (PLUPAT), ANR project

The PLU PATRIMONIAL project—gathering geographers and jurists—scientifically analyzed the “patrimonial PLU,” an operational yet non-legislated tool, delineating its legal framework, benchmarking against sectoral instruments, and evaluating its capacities and constraints.

Project website

Research Collaborations

UMR CITERES, University of Tours – Affiliated Researcher

Centre de recherches juridiques Jean-Bodin, University of Angers – Affiliated Researcher

Master’s theses and final-year projects

Supervision of Master’s Theses MECI-ADL, Université Paris Cité

Supervision of Final-Year Projects (National Landscape School of Blois, INSA Centre-Val de Loire)

Peer-reviewed Journal Articles

BALLOT Pierre-Louis, GIGOT Mathieu, TANCHOUX Philippe, TER MINASSIAN Hovig, 2024, “On the periphery of the law: heritage labels as tools for the legal definition of spaces“, p. 15-31, Géo-Regards, n°17, Special issue: “The multiple spatialities of law” (french)

TER MINASSIAN Hovig, GIGOT Mathieu, 2024, “Serious games in universities: an enjoinder to innovate, or the pleasure of teachning differently?“, Territoire en mouvement, n°63, Special issue: “Serious games” // available in french

GIGOT Mathieu, JACQUOT Sébastien, MARCHAND Julie, VESCHAMBRE Vincent, 2023, “The PLU (local urban planing): an instrument for extending heritage protection?”, Territoire en mouvement, n°56, Special issue: “Urban heritage: its values, processes, and stakeholder involvement” // available in french

GIGOT Mathieu, 2021, “Local institutionalization of a heritage policy in the city of Tours: instruments, territorialization and actors’ games“, Géocarrefour, n°95/4, Varia (french)

GIGOT Mathieu, 2020, “The shapes of law in central cultural-heritage spaces: territorialization and effectiveness of heritage law“, p. 112-137, Annales de Géographie, n°733-734, Special issue: “The Law : A Plurality of Spaces and Scales”, 2020/3-4 (french)

GIGOT Mathieu, 2018, “Cities of the Loire Valley: paradoxical effects of public heritage action“, p. 7-21, Norois, n°249, Varia, 2018/4 (french)

GIGOT Mathieu, DE LAJARTRE Arnaud, 2018, “The local urban development plan: an oriented instrument of developing citizen awareness of the landscape“, Projets de paysage, n°18 (french)

GIGOT Mathieu, 2012, “Introduction: urban heritage-making“, p. 1-6, Construction politique et sociale des territoires, Research papers n°1 “To analyze the heritage-making processes of urban spaces” (french)

GIGOT Mathieu, 2012, “Heritage as shaped by public policy instruments“, p. 35-45, Construction politique et sociale des territoires, Research papers n°1 “To analyze the heritage-making processes of urban spaces” (french)

GIGOT Mathieu, 2008, “ZPPAUP: a king of patrimonial governance?“, p. 47-62, Culture and local governance, vol. 1, n°1 (french)