This chapter discusses the growing influence of participative procedures and security measures in community development matters and focuses on the way in which their confluence brings to light a dissonant heritage in public policy. Taking the old industrial city of Saint-Denis as a case in point, I analyse the rise of ‘a right to city’ throughout a vast urban renaissance programme. While the increasing involvement of local actors aims to establish community standards, the complex institutional co-operation generates bridges between measures such as social prevention, urban safety, or dissuasive approaches in local co-operative projects.

In particular, the chapter illustrates the manner in which local government uses the heritage dimension as a powerful tool for promoting a new territorial identity. At the district level, the municipal strategy consists of reducing social and civil insecurity through citizen participation in local democratic devices. However, in practical terms, access to rights and measures of social inclusion are interconnected through a more security-focused experience of the territory. Thus, the development of political community standards raises normative questions, notably in matters of identity and belonging. In times of insecurity, the management of a dissonant heritage generates considerable misunderstanding and conflict within the local society.