Evolution is a process of selective retention of renewable variation .... Evolution involves the three Darwinian processes of variation, inheritance, and selection. An evolutionary analysis explains how variety is generated (renewed) in the population, how advantageous properties are retained and passed on and why entities differ in their propagation ....
Two systems coevolve when they both evolve in the above indicated sense and they have a causal influence on each other's evolution ....
Coevolution is different than mere co-dynamic change although they are often misused synonymously .... The difference in coevolution is that at least one -- social or environmental -- system is evolving, i.e. changing through variation, selection and inheritance.
Also coevolution is not a normative concept; it is emphatically not about social systems changing in harmony with nature ....
Coevolutionary relationships can be mutually cooperative, but also competitive parasitic, predatory or dominative. Coevolution is a value-free process of change .... Norgaard (1984) proposes instead to use the term coevolutionary development for coevolution between society and nature that is valued as beneficial by humans. [p. 690-691]