The rapid growth of the western suburbs of Québec City has resulted in the dismembrement of the parish, school and political divisions which formerly constituted the urban space. What has been created is a city based upon a discriminatory land use plan. Residential sectors exclude all other functions except that of a dormitory and limit to the periphery large apartment complexes and through traffic. Most activities are concentrated in the eastern half of the municipality with open space and communal accommodations limited to the most sparsely settled areas. This urban development plan translates a political choice realized by zoning policies, supported by local politicians whose dominant position gradually came to be the expected norm. The threats of such a position to the quality of life gave rise to the urban conflicts of the 1970's. These conflicts, frequently foreseen and sometimes taken over by city officials, resulted in the redefinition, by citizen groups, of neighbourhood boundaries for the purpose of progressively regaining control of their living environment. This activity in which the author was intimately involved resulted in socially useful knowledge which gave political clout to those who developed it. This exercise in applied geography, growing out of political necessity, illustrates well the role that the discipline can play and the strength of the information and social action which it can generate.