This volume on evolutionary approaches to economic development and growth is a member of a family of special volumes that Springer has published on Evolu­ tionary Economics recently. The present volume has excellent predecessors. There is a special volume on "Evolution in Markets and Institutions", edited by Ulrich Witt, and another on "Evolutionary and Neoclassical Perspectives on Market Structure and Economic Growth", edited by Yannis Katsoulacos. And there are more in the pipeline. The volumes already published reflect the broad ranging interests of evolu­ tionary economists, and within the scope delineated they are devoted to major research areas of the discipline. The editorial intention behind the venture of special volumes has been to bundle together some of the research areas in order to sharpen the problem focus and to generate research synergies within major research fields. We may, somewhat obviously, define a research field by its research topics. For the present purpose however, we may wish to conceive the research conducted by evolutionary economists as belonging to either a research area that is inspired in its problem perspective by neoclassical economics or to one that is not. The very success of the critique of the neoclassical paradigm relied on a preoccupation with its research scope and questions. Evolutionary econom­ ics has scored marvelously in challenging major neoclassical stands, and neoclassical economics may never be quite the same in the future.

Editorial introduction.- Editorial introduction.- I Stylized and simulated long-run economic development.- The long term impact of economic development in developed countries on developing countries since 1820.- An evolutionary model of long term cyclical variations of catching up and falling behind.- II Knowledge creation and historical learning.- Technological diffusion: European experience to 1850.- Technological paradigms, patterns of learning and development: an introductory roadmap.- III Catching up and falling behind in economic development:.- Convergence or divergence? The impact of technology on "why growth rates differ".- Catching up and falling behind, a vintage model approach.- Technological retard in small least developed countries - small is beautiful but fragile?.- IV Global potentialities, constraints and redistributional challenges.- Against free trade: neoclassical and steady-state perspectives.- A positive vision for the forerunner economies in the present global context.- The duration of development.