  The concept of the order parameter is extremely useful in physics. Here, I
discuss extensions of this concept to cases when the order parameter is no
longer a constant but fluctuates or oscillates in space and time. This allows
one to describe in an unified manner diverse physical phenomena including
coexisting superconductivity and insulators in (quasi)one-dimensional systems,
superconductivity and Coulomb blockade in granular superconductors and
Josephson networks, Anderson localization and mesoscopic effects in disordered
and chaotic systems, and thermodynamic quantum time-space crystals.
