Abstract

This article investigates characteristics of neighbourhoods as a mechanism to explain stigma-consciousness among the unemployed. In doing so, the article relies on the labelling approach and social contagion models to derive hypotheses about the effect of informal societal control and the scope of the employment norm. After combining rich survey data (PASS) with highly reliable georeferenced administrative 1x1km grid cell data on neighbourhood unemployment, multi-level models reveal a tipping point: The neighbourhood’s unemployment negatively affects the individuals' stigma-consciousness up to an unemployment rate of about 10% and positively affects the individual’s stigma-consciousness when the local quota exceeds the threshold of 30%. Especially the unemployed in neighbourhoods with pronounced income inequality suffer the most from higher neighbourhood unemployment quotas in terms of stigma-consciousness. Beyond highlighting the importance of local norms and how they shape individuals’ perceptions in general, the article sheds light on how norms operate differently on different spatial levels.