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This paper analyzes how urban associations consider and use the institutionalized local public space which has been developed these last years in Bordeaux. It examines first how this institutional framework for participation in fact threatens the urban social actors’ capacity for action, leading to a more reserved involvement. It then examines the different discourses shaping participatory associative involvement. Last, it shows how urban associations faced with these constraints make strategic choices, from boycott to instrumentalization. Urban associations are therefore more able to regenerate local democracy when they create an inter-space between institutional participation and collective action.