Epidemics, tipping points and phase transitions

I just came across this comment in the FT about the kind of social dynamics I discussed in my book Critical Mass.

It’s nicely put, though the spread of ideas/disease/information in epidemiological models can in fact also be described in terms of phase transitions: they’re a far more general concept than is implied by citing just the freezing transition. I also agree that sociologists have important, indeed crucial, things to offer in this area. But Duncan Watts trained as a physicist.