Small-World Networks, Complex Systems and Sociology

This article engages with the current literature on `small world networks'. I argue that this literature could be very important for sociology but that much of the sociological content and purchase of early work has been overlooked in recent contributions. I then reflect upon four social systems which appear to manifest small worldliness, arguing that small-world issues and concepts acquire significance and value when considered in relation to these (and other) systems.The aim of the article is to consider how and in what ways current discussions of the small-world problem could be of significance to sociology.