The data serving as a basis for this paper was gathered through one of the psychosociological interventions we realized in the context of urban renovation in Martinique during the years 2006-2008. Our argument rests on the hypothesis that a risk exists that public action may be threatened by a possible technocratic drift since it does not associate the groups and individuals concerned in the definition of its aims. We have thus shown how the assumptions underlying the organization of public action in such postcolonial societies may illustrate the violence exerted against certain groups of the population of Martinique.