From valley of sadness to hill of happiness: The significance of surroundings for socioeconomic career

Interest in neighbourhood effects has been increasing. This article is a contribution to the field, directed towards the entire areas of three municipalities in Sweden, not only their distressed areas, and to their total population with data from the Statistics Sweden register. The aim of the study is to analyse the significance of surroundings to an individual's socioeconomic career in the form of education, occupational status and income. Guided by a theoretical framework of social justice, the study proposes places of good fortune and places of few opportunities. The survey cohort is individuals born in 1970, who lived at least 5 years in the same area during their adolescence. Their careers are analysed 10 years later, in 1995. The most important finding is that the socio-demographic and physical context of the residential area of adolescence affects the subsequent socioeconomic career.