Community detection algorithms attempt to find the best clusters of nodes in
an arbitrary complex network. Multi-scale ("multiresolution") community
detection extends the problem to identify the best network scale(s) for these
clusters. The latter task is generally accomplished by analyzing community
stability simultaneously for all clusters in the network. In the current work,
we extend this general approach to define local multiresolution methods, which
enable the extraction of well-defined local communities even if the global
community structure is vaguely defined in an average sense. Toward this end, we
propose measures analogous to variation of information and normalized mutual
information that are used to quantitatively identify the best resolution(s) at
the community level based on correlations between clusters in
independently-solved systems. We demonstrate our method on two constructed
networks as well as a real network and draw inferences about local community
strength. Our approach is independent of the applied community detection
algorithm save for the inherent requirement that the method be able to identify
communities across different network scales, with appropriate changes to
account for how different resolutions are evaluated or defined in a particular
community detection method. It should, in principle, easily adapt to
alternative community comparison measures.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figure