International audienceAs the working-class suburbs are competing to attract inhabitants and private capitals, this situation shows us the reception of urban models. The urban renewal of Vaulx-en-Velin – a communist municipality of the Lyon metro area – is now based on the mobilization of private actors. While a new urban project appears as a new set of actions in policy making, this article aims at demonstrating that this use can be explained by a previous process of changing political and administrative practices. This process especially results from the relations between politics and networks around urban development policies since the 1980’s.L’entrée de communes de banlieue populaire dans une compétition entre territoires afin d’attirer ...