One can often have the diffuse feeling of a rise of land use conflicts in France. It might appear that they occupy an important role and that they come to interfere in the development processes by expressing an opposition to certain projects, be there decided by the State, private companies or various citizens. Various explanations of this key position are then moved forward : the judicialization of the society, the implication of local populations and their ever increasing level of information, the selfishness of peculiar groups of local residents, the increasing complexity of the technical production actions or the lack of space in several particular territories like peri-urban areas. The goal of this article is to make an assessment about the state of land use conflicts in France and their main characteristics, based on the results of a research program set up for several years. The first part is devoted to the presentation of the main hypotheses and the methodology of the study, while the second presents the main applied results and the main features of conflict relations. The last part investigates the impact of these conflicts on the governance and territorial development processes