LABORATORY OF URBAN SOCIOLOGY

Under the direction of Prof. Vincent Kaufmann and Luca Pattaroni, Laboratory of Urban Sociology (LASUR) comprises of around fifteen researchers and PhD students united towards the comprehension of urban experiences within a social science perspective.

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LaSUR Conferences

Each year, the Urban Sociology Laboratory brings together researchers and practitioners for two conferences focused on mobility and housing, its main research themes.

Swiss Habitat Conference

The Swiss Habitat Conference is an annual event organised by social scientists, geographers and architects, in a collaboration between EPFL and UNIL. Its core objective is to provide researchers with the opportunity to engage with colleagues convened under the broad umbrella of housing justice here and beyond.

Swiss Mobility Conference

The Swiss Mobility Conference provides a space for discussion and debate for researchers in the humanities and social sciences who work on different forms of mobility in Switzerland and beyond.

Research Projects

The Urban Sociology Laboratory is currently conducting several major projects, including the Lemanic Panel.

Lemanic Panel

LASUR is conducting a longitudinal panel over a five-year period, consisting of a representative sample of 10,000 people living in the Lake Geneva region. Designed as a genuine transition observatory, this initiative aims to measure changes in mobility behaviors, consumption practices, and, more broadly, lifestyles.

Cahiers du LaSUR

Based on an open conception of sociology that invites architecture, urban planning, economics, geography and history to participate in the social study of urbanization, LaSUR studies urban societies and cities, their spatial configurations, materials, social dynamics, and the policies and planning efforts that help shape them. With more than 30 publications to date, Les Cahiers du LaSUR reflects the backstage and mobile, innovative state of urban research. Research that is curious and agile because it can be published in (almost) real time and isn’t afraid to share its doubts as well as its findings.

Cahiers du LaSUR

News

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© 2026 EPFL - Adobe Stock - Irina Schmidt

School mobility goes beyond the choice of transport

21.08.26EPFL

For Vincent Kaufmann, co-director of the Urban Sociology Laboratory, the journey to school plays an important role in learning autonomy. It allows children to discover public space, learn its rules, and socialize. However, the mode of transport used does not determine their mobility choices in adulthood.

The rise of “third places”

27.07.26EPFL

Le Courrier published an article on the development of “third places” — open, hybrid spaces that make it possible to exchange knowledge, pool skills, experiment, create common goods, and meet one another. The newspaper notably interviews Luca Pattaroni, a professor of urban sociology.

Tenants are mobilizing

15.06.26EPFL

In Geneva, tenants in two neighborhoods, Servette and Augustins, are organizing against the owners of their buildings — pension funds, insurance companies, and investment funds — who have announced the termination of leases with the aim of demolishing and then rebuilding these buildings. Sophie Realini and Maxime Felder, from EPFL’s Urban Sociology Laboratory, publish a reflection on this subject in Le Courrier.

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