Autopoiesis refers to a
closed system capable of creating itself. The term was introduced in 1972 by Chilean biologists
Humberto Maturana and
Francisco Varela to define to the self-maintaining
chemistry of living
cells. Since then the concept has been also applied to the fields of
systems theory and
sociology.
The original definition can be found in
Autopoiesis and Cognition: the Realization of the Living (1st edition 1973, 2nd 1980):