No concept survives circulation unchanged. Mutation occurs when its function changes because it enters another scale, medium, audience or institutional regime. RegimeMutation names this alteration of the system in which a concept operates; VectorAfterlife identifies the direction that survives after the original context disappears; PersistenceRemake describes continuity achieved through reconstruction rather than identical preservation. Participation may move from collective power-sharing to procedural legitimation; resilience may support common preparation or ask vulnerable populations to absorb systemic harm. The name can remain stable while its operative politics is reversed. Mutation is diagnosed through effects rather than vocabulary. A version table should compare context, actors, purpose, supports, beneficiaries, exclusions and political direction, making productive adaptation distinguishable from domestication. Concepts remain alive because they can be rebuilt, but adaptability becomes opportunism when a prestigious term survives by abandoning every demanding implication. Explicit versioning is therefore essential: adaptations should be named, source histories preserved and functional changes declared. Mutation can reopen formulation and operation when the new version remains exposed to feedback. When institutions instead protect it from contradiction, mutation tends toward fixation and the reconstructed concept becomes increasingly difficult to revise.
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