Klass, rumslig segration och livskvalitet i två svenska städer

Against a background of decades of spatial class segregation in Sweden and elsewhere, and with the Swedish city as our empirical base, we demonst rate how classposition effects residents’ life chances defined here as health, security, participation, and education. By comparing the circumstances of affluent neighbourhoodsin both cities with those of disadvantaged neighbourhoods we elucidate important changes in a modern city’s class hierarchy like increased social polarization.We conclude, firstly, that those neighbourhoods that change class position do soslowly and are becoming predominantly middle class. Secondly, we show that thesituation in both cities’ low income neighbourhood category varies dramatically.Finally, and in contradiction with mainstream urban theory, we infer that growingsocial inequality is not always detrimental to the lives of residents in disadvantagedneighbourhood