The starting point of this doctoral research is the observation of the incorporation of objects called "fablab", "hackerspace" or "living lab" in public policies. The increased expansion of these new "places" at the heart or at the margins of public policies is supported by semantics associated with innovation, entrepreneurship, flexibility and creativity. But beyond these rhetorical effects and their fascination, it is demonstrated that these objects of public policies constitute one of the realities of the metropolitan action, under different modalities. This thesis stays away from the laudatory discourses that accompany the emergence of these objects and mainly focuses on the analysis of their relationships to the territory and the dynamics of the urban space. It has to be taken into account that the complexity of these places and their inclusion in an everevolvingpublic policy requires to use the logics of space, specific to geography and planning, and to resort to other disciplines contributions, such as sociology and political science. The investigation articulates different spaces, time periods, and survey methods. A first investigation in France on hackerspaces, fablabs and living labs was followed by a comparative investigation on a European scale (Rennes and Toulouse in France, Ghent in Belgium). The thesis exposes and interprets the promises driven by these places. Tensions are highlighted. One major tension situates these places between inheritance of the counterculture, process of normalisation and "recovery". These tensions represent the main thread of the thesis: they run through the insertion of places of experimentation and digital manufacturing in a context of changes, inherent to contemporary cities. Based on notions such as "social world", "common" and "urban commons", the thesis also sheds lights on the social dynamics of these places. Partly dismantling the enthusiastic representations regarding fablabs,hackerspaces and living labs, the thesis puts their scope in perspective in terms of ...