Program Overview

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Diploma de Postítulo en Gobernanza, Innovación y Transformación Territorial: Creando futuros urbanos justos

Descripción

The Diploma in Governance, Innovation, and Territorial Transformation: Creating Just Urban Futures offers a critical and interdisciplinary education to understand and act on contemporary urban and territorial transformations. The program examines tensions between development, sustainability, and territorial justice, and develops participants' capacities to design intervention strategies oriented towards spatial justice and real transformation of territories.

Objetivos

General:

• Form professionals capable of comprehending and acting critically and strategically in the face of contemporary urban and territorial transformations, integrating theory and practice to design innovations in urban and territorial governance oriented towards spatial justice and equity.

Específicos:

• Analyze critically contemporary urban transformation processes from interdisciplinary perspectives that integrate geography, urbanism, architecture, public policies, and social sciences.
• Develop analytical and technical capacities for territorial diagnosis and management, applying concrete tools for planning, management, governance, and urban intervention in different contexts.
• Explore and compare international experiences of institutional innovation, municipal cooperation, and post-extractive urbanism, situating local challenges in the framework of global urbanism.
• Design strategies and projects for territorial transformation through the Laboratory of Innovation in Urban Governance, promoting collaborative work, decision-making under uncertainty, and practical application of knowledge.
• Foster a critical, creative, and committed vision for constructing more just and inclusive urban futures, articulating geographical thought, political analysis, and applied action.

Perfil de egreso

Graduates of the Diploma in Governance, Innovation, and Territorial Transformation will be professionals capable of critically analyzing contemporary urban and territorial transformation processes, understanding the dynamics of power, inequality, and change that configure them. They will be able to apply innovation and governance tools to address complex urban problems and design collaborative and multi-scalar intervention strategies, integrating approaches to territorial justice, sustainability, and participation in decision-making.

Coordinación Académica

Professor Michael Lukas

Fechas de Postulación

• Inicio de postulaciones: December 1, 2025
• Cierre de postulaciones: March 16, 2026, or until vacancies are filled

Inicio de clases

• Fecha de inicio: March 31, 2026
• Fecha de término: June 25, 2026
• Horario: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 18:30 - 21:30 hours

Cupos

20

Duración

216 hours in total, with 72 hours of synchronous teaching distributed over 12 weeks

Plan de estudios

The Diploma is developed entirely in remote mode (online) and considers a total of 72 hours of synchronous activity and 144 hours of indirect student work, completing a total of 216 chronological hours. The classes are developed in two modules of 1.5 hours during Tuesday and Thursday afternoons (18:30 to 21:30). The program extends over a total of 12 weeks.

Módulo 1. Cambios urbanos y territoriales globales: desafíos de innovación y gobernanza para la ciudad justa

After introducing the program and work plan, some of the most important urban and territorial processes are reviewed from an interdisciplinary perspective, recognizing the tensions between innovation, governance, and social justice in scenarios of uncertainty, crisis, and transition.

Módulo 2. Vivienda y ciudad: entre el mercado, el derecho y la innovación social

This module focuses on housing and urban policies in Chile and Latin America, exploring tensions between the economic role of the real estate sector and its social function, as well as experiences of social innovation, self-management, and public policy.

Módulo 3. Planificación urbana y territorial: innovación, gobernanza y desafíos

This module critically reviews the processes, instruments, and main actors involved in urban and territorial planning in a context of coexistence of economic pressures, new demands for participation, and problems such as financialization, urban dispersion, climate change, and exposure to socio-natural risks.

Módulo 4 (transversal): Laboratorio de Innovación en Gobernanza Urbana y Territorial Transformativa: poner en práctica la caja de herramientas GITT

This module delivers concrete tools for diagnosis, design of interventions, and elaboration of territorial intervention proposals in various formats, from an urban project to a territorial cultural intervention. The focus is on innovation, not necessarily replication.

Mecanismos de Evaluación

The evaluation will be based on an applied exercise in multidisciplinary groups developing the design of a governance and urban management strategy for existing or emerging cases, using the diagnostic, analysis, and proposal tools acquired in the course.

Infraestructura, Equipamiento y Software

The Diploma will be held entirely remotely through the University's Zoom platform. Working materials and regular communication with students will be organized through the U-Cursos platform.

Exigencias académicas

Applicants must possess a Bachelor's degree and/or Professional Title of at least 8 semesters in disciplines related to the Program. For applicants with a higher technical title, the program coordinator will evaluate the professional profile on a case-by-case basis for admission.

Admisión

Applicants must send the admission application through the online application system. The following documents are required:

• Certificado de Licenciatura o Título Profesional
• Currículum Vitae
• Carta de intención
• Copia de documento de identificación

Requisitos de graduación

To obtain the Diploma, students must approve the Program evaluation, with a minimum grade of 4.0. The evaluation will include a group project, where the application of the competencies acquired by the participant will converge. Additionally, the participant must have attended at least 75% of the classes.

Docentes y expositores del Programa

Docentes:

• Dr. Michael Lukas
• Dra. Mónica Bustos
• Dr. Rodrigo Caimanque
• Dra. Yasna Contreras
• Dr. Tomás Cox
• Dra. Katia Soto
• Dr. David Kornbluth

Expositores invitados:

• Dr. Vicente Burgos
• Doris González Lemunao
• Dra. Alejandra Rivas Espinosa
• Danitza Vymazal B.
• Rodrigo Araya
• Dr. Gustavo Durán
• Dr. Manuel Bayón

Valor

50 UF year 2025. Alternatives for tuition fee discounts 2026.