The diffusion of an evolutionary approach in economics during the past roughly 40 years has been steady and persuasive. This special issue is taking stock of some recent developments especially in the fields of analysis of institutions, economic geography, consumption and the demand side, which are still somewhat exploratory and pioneering. Four broad groups of papers are presented, addressing "Creativity, and knowledge accumulation", "Firms, consumers and structural change", "Welfare and evolving preferences" and "The macro and institutional levels".