Wiktionary
n. Self creation; self organization.
Wikipedia
The term "autopoiesis" refers to a system capable of reproducing and maintaining itself. 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.
The original definition can be found in Autopoiesis and Cognition: the Realization of the Living (1st edition 1973, 2nd 1980):
Usage examples of "autopoiesis".
B underexplains C and overexplains or is retrotensive with A, trying, for example, to read autopoiesis into the physiosphereunconvincingly.
B, or living systems, and make them paradigmatic for all levels, with equally embarrassing results but now in both directions: B underexplains C and overexplains or is retrotensive with A, trying, for example, to read autopoiesis into the physiosphereunconvincingly.
A holon functions not only as a self-preserving whole but also as a part of a larger whole, and in its capacity as a part it must adapt or accommodate itself to other holons (not autopoiesis but allopoiesis.
We may distinguish between four different dimensional frameworks: autopoiesis, ontogeny, phylogeny, anagenesis.