21 years in east London: issues in policy, research and practice

This paper is very much an introduction to work-in-progress and is based on a presentation at a
seminar at London Metropolitan University and the ensuing debate (Mau, 2011). It builds on
personal experience as a practitioner in the community language sector for 21 years (Sneddon,
1993), and on experience of research in the field, some of which was carried out with my late
colleague Peter Martin. Peter and I began to explore some of the many dimensions of diversity in
the complementary school sector on our doorstep in east London. We were fascinated by the way it
developed organically to meet the very specific needs of highly localised communities and how
issues of power and status impact in different ways and offer different opportunities and challenges
to differently situated communities (Sneddon & Martin, forthcoming).