Page - (000323) - in Knowledge and Networks

321 identified by the Girvan-Newman method is very close to the structure of counties. Although some clusters contain municipalities from more than one county, the county structure is clear. Twenty of the clusters are dominated by municipalities from a single county (cluster 14 is an exception with only one municipality). Municipalities from some counties are divided between clusters (Västra Götaland, Skåne), but a single county still dominates each cluster. Only a few counties have the municipalities distributed across clusters without clearly dominating at least one cluster (Uppsala, Västernorrland). The county structure of clusters remains robust even if the algorithm is told to produce a different number of clusters.5 We can also look at what is called the E-I index for each of these clusters. The E-I index is a measure that varies between −1 and +1. At +1, all ties are external to 5 With 10 clusters, the method identifies a regional organization that resembles the three old Swedish provinces (Norrland, Svealand, and Götaland). However, municipalities still tend to clus- ter with other municipalities from their own county. The northern region includes Norrbotten, Västerbotten, and Västernorrland. The center region includes Stockholm, Uppsala, Södermanland, Gävleborg, Dalarna, Västmanland, Gotland, and Jämtland. Then there are seven small regions in the south: (1) Västra Götaland, Halland, and Jönköping; (2) Örebro; (3) Östergötland; (4) Kronoberg and Blekinge; (5) Värmland; (6) Kalmar; and (7) Skåne. Table 15.2 Girvan-newman clusters by county Cluster number Counties (number of municipalities per county) E-I index 1 Stockholm (26); Södermanland (1); Skåne (1) −0.411 2 Södermanland (7); Uppsala (2) 0.000 3 Gävleborg (10); Västernorrland (4); Uppsala (1) −0.310 4 Västmanland (7); Uppsala (4); Södermanland (1); Gotland (1); Örebro (1) 0.162 5 Östergötland (12); Halland (1) −0.197 6 Västra Götland (22); Östergötland (1); Jönköping (1) −0.338 7 Jönköping (12); Halland (4); Blekinge (1) −0.116 8 Kronoberg (8) −0.195 9 Kalmar (12) −0.417 10 Blekinge (4) 0.130 11 Skåne (16) −0.452 12 Skåne (12) −0.282 13 Jämtland (8); Skåne (1); Västernorrland (1) −0.020 14 Skåne (1) 0.000 15 Västra Götaland (11); Halland (1) −0.416 16 Västra Götaland (14) 0.262 17 Västerbotten (15); Västmanland (1); Västra Götaland (1); Västernorrland (1); Norbotten (1) −0.371 18 Värmland (16) −0.247 19 Örebro (11) −0.426 20 Dalarna (14); Västmanland (2) −0.229 21 Norrbotten (13); Västernorrland (1) −0.277 15 Learning Networks Among Swedish Municipalities: Is Sweden a Small World?