Finite differences in a small world

Many complex networks in nature exhibit two properties that are seemingly at odds. They are clustered - neighbors of neighbors are very likely to be neighbors - and they are small worlds - any two nodes can typically be connected by a relatively short path. Watts and Strogatz [17] referred to this as the small world phenomenon and proposed a network model that was shown through simulation to capture the two properties. The model incorporates a parameter that interpolates between fully local and fully global regimes. As the parameter is varied the small world property is roused before the clustering property is lost.