The study of neighbourhood effects has spread within Europe over the past decade. This article extends previous European research by focusing on Oslo, Norway. The main question relates to individual development among adolescents: does the social composition of the neighbourhood affect the socioeconomic status later in life? The study applies a multilevel approach and utilises longitudinal register-based data. The results reveal small but significant effects of neighbourhood deprivation on educational achievement and, even less pronounced, on income. Some effects on unemployment are also observed, but only in the short run. The strongest associations obtain for concentration of welfare recipients in the neighbourhood, which emphasises the importance of social value and social participation. A crude comparison suggests that neighbourhood effects in Oslo are slightly smaller/larger than similar effects in Swedish/UK cities.

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by Ingar Brattbakk BRAttBAKK, I. (2014): 'Block, neighbourhood or district? the importance of geographical scale for area effects on educational attainment', Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 96 (2): 109-125.ABStRAct. Researchers show an increasing interest in the question of how a neighbourhood influences its residents. the crucial question is whether place-related factors have an independent effect on individual life chances. this study examines adolescent development, with educational attainment as the dependent variable. It further addresses contextual effects that emerge at different intra-urban geographical scales by exploring spatial effects at block, neighbourhood and district level in oslo, norway. How does the population composition at the three scales affect the level of future educational attainment for adolescents? what are the most important aspects of the population? Is the impact of various population indicators similar or different across the three scales? A number of causal mechanisms, which operate at different geographical scales, such as social interaction, shared social spaces, stigmatization and institutional resources are discussed. the study has a longitudinal approach, and includes register-based information about the whole population of oslo and a young target population. the analysis is based on two-, three-and four-level modelling. the results reveal significant effects on the youth's future educational attainment at all geographical levels and for all tested measures of social and demographic area composition. the share of low-educated neighbours seems to have the strongest impact. contradictory to most other studies, the results show that the highest geographical level (district) has the strongest effect. this surprising result is tentatively interpreted to emerge from a combination of three interwoven mechanisms: the youths' extended activity spaces and social interactions, the institutional aspects (schools), and place stigmatization.

I artikkelen ser vi på argumentene for områdesatsinger i norsk bypolitikk som en bakgrunn for å diskutere foreliggende forskning av slike satsinger. Gitt at norsk byforskning har en sterk overvekt av studier med data fra Oslo, samt at det saerlig er i hovedstaden områdesatsingene har vaert gjennomført, retter vi oppmerksomheten spesielt mot situasjonen i denne byen. Det foreligger så å si ikke vitenskapelige studier av områdesatsinger i Norge. Kunnskapsproduksjonen har nesten utelukkende skjedd som oppdragsforskning-og evalueringer som ikke har gjennomgått den kvalitetssikring som ligger i vitenskapelige publikasjoner. Det vi synes å vite, med bakgrunn i bidrag av sistnevnte slag, er at tiltak i regi av norske områdesatsinger påvirker boligpriser, helsetilstand, barnehagedeltakelse og skoleresultater. Noe av det vi vet mindre om, er effektene av såkalte «møteplasser». Vi hevder derfor at politikere, planleggere og andre sentrale aktører mangler et solid kunnskapsgrunnlag for å vurdere om områdesatsinger er en fornuftig strategi i norske byer. Siden det er få norske vitenskapelige studier å gjennomgå eller laere av, diskuterer vi også funn fra et strategisk utvalg vitenskapelige studier fra andre land.