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User participation is a recurring theme in social work. But at the same time it presents itself as an unattainable horizon, a kind of utopia that is struggling to materialize. How many times, in meetings or symposia in the field or on the question of poverty, has a voice been raised that regrets and stigmatizes the absence of the people we are talking about, of those who are directly concerned by the ongoing debates. They are absent, not only speechless, but in addition, it is even difficult to name them. Participation: between a noble democratic intention and a trick mirror. On the one hand, it is an issue of emancipation and citizenship and, on the other, an alibi for political misery.