| Summary: | Built on a comparison of two urban development processes in Lille and Hamburg, this article outlines a criticism of two analytical pitfalls that one can find in some research works on the “neoliberal city” based on the inductive analysis of the contradictions of two urban projects that might fit with the image of this model of urban government. This contribution deals with the way the International Building Exhibition (IBA) Hamburg and the Union-project between the municipalities of Roubaix, Tourcoing and Wattrelos combine place-based social development with urban attractiveness. First, the socio-historical part of the analysis shows that the combination of the categories of “deprived neighborhood and “metropolitan attractiveness” has mainly increased a process of social selection that had already begun with the previous programs of neighborhood development. Then, the second part focusing on the implementation of the IBA and the Union-project shows that even if attracting capital turned out to be a predominant objective of both projects, it has been combined with other ideals like excellence, good governance and spatial justice in a very differentiated way, depending on economic, institutional and political struggles that structure each local political scene.
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