This article proposes a revised definition of the circular economy after having analyzed and compared the most prominent related concepts. Based on an analysis of academic literature, defining characteristics of different concepts are identified to structure the field of research. The comparison of concepts serves as a basis for the synthesis: a revised definition of the circular economy. While most concepts overlap, they emphasize different issues. Our classification helps to distinguish how concepts are situated in dimensions such as industry/service oriented, efficiency/zero waste target, or micro/macro scope. The revised definition distinguishes between core characteristics of a circular economy and framing conditions enabling its implementation. It has the potential to support both researchers and practitioners to develop clearer guidelines for the path to a circular economy.

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Somewhat surprisingly, evolutionary economists are far from agreeing upon the economic concept of evolution. The debate revolves around the question whether the mechanisms of variation, selection and retention are general principles of evolutionary processes, also valid in economics, or if economic evolution can be described by self-organization. The paper argues that self-organization is a useful concept, but has not yet fulfilled the aspiration to describe economic evolution as an endogenous process. In self-organization models important aspects, like novelty generation or the attribution of its economic quality, are introduced exogenously. In verbal descriptions however, even critics of general evolutionary principles sketch these processes in a way that is perfectly compatible with the universal principles. The paper thus argues that the controversy is mainly based on a misinterpretation of Universal Darwinism and tries to clarify the concept. It concludes that variation, selection and retention are in fact general evolutionary principles; as self-organization maybe is.evolutionary economics, economic evolution, Universal Darwinism, self-organization, selection, novelty generation,

NK-model, Innovation, Search processes, Complexity reduction, Modularity, Decomposition,

Genetic Algorithms, Internal selection, Intentionality, External selection, Bounded rationality, Economic evolution,