Page - (000317) - in Knowledge and Networks

315© The Author(s) 2017 J. Glückler et al. (eds.), Knowledge and Networks, Knowledge and Space 11, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45023-0_15 Chapter 15 Learning Networks Among Swedish Municipalities: Is Sweden a Small World? Christopher Ansell, Martin Lundin, and Per Ola Öberg Distributed, networked learning processes are widely touted as a basis for superior performance. Public and private organizations, cities and regions, and even nations are exhorted to network, to innovate collaboratively, to benchmark, and above all to learn from one another (Agranoff, 2006; Betsill & Bulkeley, 2004; Cooke & Morgan, 1993; Goldsmith & Eggers, 2004; Kraatz, 1998; Lee & van de Meene, 2012; Powell, Koput, & Smith-Doerr, 1996; Slaughter, 2009). From case study research, we know a good deal about local strategies of networking, innovation, and collaboration (e.g., Saxenian, 1996). And from diffusion studies, we also know that the structure of networks shapes the diffusion of information, ideas, innovations, policies, and best practices (Cao, 2010; Davis, 1991; Granovetter, 1973; Gray, 1973; Hedström, Sandell, & Stern, 2000; Lee & Strang, 2006; Mintrom & Vergari, 1998; Stone, 2004). However, we know relatively little about how the local learning choices of individuals, firms, cities, or nations aggregate into global network pat- terns that may subsequently affect diffusion. In this chapter, we explore this ques- tion by examining how the learning strategies of Swedish municipalities aggregate to produce a national intermunicipal learning network. Interdependence between the policy choices of local governments has attracted growing interest recently (Lee & van de Meene, 2012; Marsden, Frick, May, & Deakin, 2011). It has been argued that subnational governments can act like demo- C. Ansell (*) Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA e-mail: cansell@berkeley.edu M. Lundin Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU), Uppsala, Sweden e-mail: martin.lundin@ifau.uu.se P.O. Öberg Department of Government, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden e-mail: PerOla.Oberg@statsvet.uu.se