TY  - CHAP
AB  - Maturana and Varela (1980, p. 78f) provided the following definition of autopoiesis: “An autopoietic machine is a machine organized (defined as a unity) as a network of processes of production (transformation and destruction) of components that produces the components which: (i) through their interactions and transformations continuously regenerate and realize the network of processes (relations) that produced them and (ii) constitute it (the machine) as a concrete unity in the space in which they (the components) exist by specifying the topological domain of its realization as such a network.” This definition shows that for Maturana and Varela, autopoietic systems are systems that define, maintain, and reproduce themselves. The notion of machine that they employ in the definition might seem a bit misleading because we tend to think of machines as mechanistic and nonliving, but Maturana and Varela (e.g., 1987) in later publications have preferred to speak of autopoietic organizations.
VL  - 6
SN  - 978-1-84855-833-5, 978-1-84855-832-8/1877-6361
DO  - 10.1108/S1877-6361(2009)0000006007
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S1877-6361(2009)0000006007
AU  - Fuchs Christian
AU  - Hofkirchner Wolfgang
ED  - Rodrigo Magalhães
ED  - Ron Sanchez
PY  - 2010
Y1  - 2010/01/01
TI  - Chapter 6 Autopoiesis and Critical Social Systems Theory
T2  - Advanced Series in Management
T3  - Advanced Series in Management
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 111
EP  - 129
Y2  - 2024/05/11
ER  -