The East End of London is a special place for urban sociologists. For so many of the core topics that urban sociologists deal with – ranging from poverty, migration, gender and ethnic relations over housing, social services and civil society to public space and culture – the East End was – and still is – a social laboratory. It is a place where new social problems and societal challenges and opportunities become visible and where new solutions and answers to these problems and challenges are developed and experimented with. 

During the two day excursion in the East End of London, we will visit places, organisations and people through which we will learn about the social laboratory function of the East End of London. We will  explore five themes: (1) the social provisioning city (social services and self-organisations); (2) housing and urban development (social housing, gentrification and real estate speculation); (3) the emancipatory city (social movements in the city: feminism, socialism and anarchism); (4) the multicultural city (interethnic relations, ethnic stratification and ethnic entrepreneurship); and (5) street art and urban culture.