Quantum phase transitions and structural evolution in nuclei

This overview discusses the evolution of collectivity in atomic nuclei, with particular focus on the rapidly developing field of quantum phase transitions in the nuclear shape, and on trajectories of structural evolution in the N / Z plane. Particular stress is put on the interplay of a nucleon-based description of the driving mechanisms in the emergence of coherence and collectivity in nuclei with a more macroscopic perspective in terms of nuclear shapes and the symmetries and quantum numbers of the many-body system taken as a whole.