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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 class position effects residents' life chances defined here as heaith, security, participation, and education. By comparing the circumstances of affluent neighbourhoods in 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 so slowly and are becoming predominantly middle class. Secondly, we show that the situation in both cities' low income neighbourhood category varies dramatically. Finally, and in contradiction with mainstream urban theory, we infer that growing social inequality is not always detrimental to the lives of residents in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]