Modern evolutionary economic perspectives: an overview

Exploring evolutionary economic geographies

“…Within the capitalist economic system, it is impossible to comprehend the process of competition without innovation and the shadow of uncertainty that it casts. Generalized Darwinism handles the creation of variety through the process of generative selection (Hodgson and Knudsen 2006), but changes occurring through selftransformation or development will have to be included as well (Metcalfe and Foster 2001). 2.…”

“…the emergence of patterns through interaction between entities that cannot be reduced to properties of those entities, is potentially important to explain evolutionary processes not only in social and cultural but also in biological systems, in particular the emergence of novelty (Kaufman 1993; Weber 1995, 1996;Foster 2000Foster , 2001 2 . However, it is unclear whether the principle of self-organization can be accommodated within the framework of Generalized Darwinism, although a synthesis of the two frameworks appears possible and even necessary Weber 1995, 1996;Foster and Metcalfe 2001;Hodgson and Knudsen 2006;Kaufmann 1993Kaufmann , 2000Metcalfe 2005). Self-organization can explain how order may emerge from interacting agents "but itself it explains neither (a) the characteristics of the agents that interact to create the emergent order, (b) how the emergent order reacts to competing social orders, nor (c) more generally how an emergent order adapts and survives in the broader social and natural environment" (Hodgson and Knudsen 2006: 9).…”

Bio-clusters as co-evolutionary developments of technology, venture capital and socio-political institutions: a historical perspective of Cambridge and Scotland

“…For neo-evolutionary economists (Foster and Metcalfe, 2001;Metcalfe and Ramlogan, 2005;Pelikan, 2001), the IS approach to bio-clusters seems to imply an innovation problem sequence process '…akin to random mutation or copy-error processes' (Foster and Metcalfe, 2001: 9). These economists clearly propose a three-stage evolutionary framework of analysis based on variation, selection and development (ibid: 6).…”

“…Indeed, this is not surprising since as Cooke (2004: 915) stresses '…biotechnology is seen as a sine qua non of regional economic development'. What is surprising is that bio-clusters are either considered to be linear developments of Porter-type policies which seek to stimulate innovation flows and learning (Mcdonald et al, 2007) or a-historical phenomena, occurring and evolving by accident when an innovation problem sequence arises Coombs et al, 2003;Foster and Metcalfe, 2001).…”

Evolutionary Economics and Psychology

“…The competition between them, and the economic and social adaptations triggered by that competition, fuel the process of transformation from within the economy (cf. Nelson 1995, Foster and Metcalfe 2001, Fagerberg 2003, Witt 2007 for recent surveys).…”