REAL
Keystone sector methodology applied to Portugal
more adequate to human reality. In fact an actor can be a transmitter (the arc is away
from the node), a carrier (there are at least two arcs, one toward and one away) or a
receiver (the arc is toward the node). Further on we can imagine an isolated actor that
will be the case of a node with no arc that relate him with any other actors in the
network.
With this identification process we will be able to interpret the results under the
structural holes argument, finding the actors who can increase the whole network
efficiency, because are more likely to use the non-redundant links.
4. Main results14
4.1. The results for Macro-structure
In TT town we expected to find a sparse network because traditional textile
activity required mostly international INFORMATION connections to firms. However,
uncertainty about the changes existed in consequence of the new roles of some public
institutions in town such as the University and the Municipality. Traditionally, TT had
important information clusters where worker’s associations and textile unions played
important roles. However, the last urban plan transformed old factories in University
Departments; old neighborhood associations gave away to nightlife cafes and new
commerce location allowed traditional retailer shops to be transformed into service and
public institutions.
Could this shift be revealed in the network information flows patterns?
On the other hand, we predicted a very low density in MONEY flows, while we
know that money is not abundant and a number of new institutions were fighting for
funds in an external basis, at the national and international levels. Despite this, we were
curious about the new role played by banks and insurance companies correlated with
the housing boom in the last two decades.
Finally, it was expected to observe relative higher density in
ORGANIZATIONAL flows, because difficulties emerged in consequence of job losses
and labor-training demand, provided a better environment for a new institutional
spring. As European funds have been predominantly given for infrastructure and
14 The software we used to run the tests were: MicroSoft Excel 97, Unicet 5.0 for Windows.
12