Autopoiesis expresses that the mechanisms of self-production are the key to understand both the diversity and the uniqueness of the living. It’s living systems are ‘self producing’ mechanisms which maintain their particular form despite material inflow and outflow, through self-regulation and self-reference. The term was introduced in 1972 by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela to define the self-maintaining chemistry of living cells. Since then the concept has been also applied to the fields of systems theory and sociology.
Autopoiesis
