Keystone sector methodology:network analysis comparative study

Keystone sector methodology applied to Portugal
decisive role in locality restructuring, differentiating community ability to adopt
competitive strategies. This suggests the need for alternative approaches, which
complement economic impact analyze.

As social network analysis is a methodology focused on interaction among
actors who, embedded in their specific social contacts, can play a leading role to
accomplish the development goals in a community. The whole town is then the
observation unity in this analysis and the outcome is different from looking at the sum
of individual behaviors.

In this paper we tested the hypothesis of the keystone sector and the change in
the social structure of a small traditional industrial town located in a European rural
underdeveloped region. Due to its export base tradition, it was expected to find few
internal contacts density. Nevertheless, it was unpredictable which were the more
prominent actors while from the last two decades we knew that industry lost its share in
the city employment structure.

No keystone sector was found, which contradicts the US evidence. Although
structural holes are present, the prominence indicators reveal that it is improbable that
best-located actors can really benefit for information and control to ameliorate
competition. It was expected to find an institutional network structure based on the
dictatorship public sector more than in private organizations and no dominating private
sectors. In fact, the prominent players mostly belong to the public and non-profit
sectors and the only relevant private firms belong to construction and insurance sectors
revealing the real estate dynamics connected with developer benefits provided by the
main public institutions. The margin over 25% of redundant contacts ask for more
further research focused on the content of the analyzed flows.

Conclusions

The benefits of regional policies have many public goods aspects and so far
private oriented incentives are not successful in dealing with them. The urbanization
process in small towns located in rural areas is contradictory; these need more people
but there are not too many people to attract. In addition, to sustain their role as
providers of upgraded services to the region, these towns need more well educated
people that, in general, are more likely to appreciate a new package of goods,
composed by amenities, unspoiled natural environment and social capital, avoiding the

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