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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coevolution | 4/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coevolution | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T07:17:37.344867+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== In management and organisation studies === Since 2000, coevolution has been explored in management and organisation studies, for example in the business ecosystem of partners of the Intel corporation, where Intel both shapes and is shaped by its partners. However, the processes that characterise coevolution in these fields remain unclear, and its applicability is undefined. It has been suggested that when an organisation seeks ideas from external partners, it tends to select and retain partners whose ideas align with its own. This means that far from passively receiving ideas during a search, organisations actively shape the nature of the contributions they can receive in a two-way "coevolutionary lock-in" process.
=== In political economy === Some scholars have applied coevolution to propose non-linear theories in political economy. The Emergence of Organizations and Markets, by John Padgett and Walter Powell, presents case studies of social networks coevolving with institutions, mainly based on early European history (e.g., commercial networks in 13th century Tuscany). A more contemporary application is How China Escaped the Poverty Trap, by Yuen Yuen Ang, which traces the mutual adaptation of the economy and institution, first in China's development under Deng Xiaoping, and also in Nigeria's film industry and American public finance.
=== In sociology === In Development Betrayed: The End of Progress and A Coevolutionary Revisioning of the Future (1994) Richard Norgaard proposes a coevolutionary cosmology to explain how social and environmental systems influence and reshape each other. In Coevolutionary Economics: The Economy, Society and the Environment (1994) John Gowdy suggests that: "The economy, society, and the environment are linked together in a coevolutionary relationship".
=== In system development === Computer software and hardware can be considered as two separate components but tied intrinsically by coevolution. Similarly, operating systems and computer applications, web browsers, and web applications. All these systems depend upon each other and advance through a kind of evolutionary process. Changes in hardware, an operating system or web browser may introduce new features that are then incorporated into the corresponding applications running alongside. The idea is closely related to the concept of "joint optimization" in sociotechnical systems analysis and design, where a system is understood to consist of both a "technical system" encompassing the tools and hardware used for production and maintenance, and a "social system" of relationships and procedures through which the technology is tied into the goals of the system and all the other human and organizational relationships within and outside the system. Such systems work best when the technical and social systems are deliberately developed together. The concept of coevolution has been used by Mary Lou Maher and others to model the dynamic relationship between clarification of problem definition and development of a matching solution over time within a system development process. An assumed linear progression from 'problem' to 'solution', has been reinterpreted as a coevolutionary progression in which ideas for possible solutions influence and change the understanding of the problem. Developed at first from within the computational context of genetic algorithms, coevolution has been developed as a general, descriptive model of the design process, not only in individual design work but also in teamwork.
== See also == Evolutionary arms race Bak–Sneppen model CoEvolution Quarterly Coextinction Ecological fitting Escape and radiate coevolution Genomics of domestication
== Notes ==
== References ==
== External links == Coevolution, video of lecture by Stephen C. Stearns (Open Yale Courses)