Definitions for "AUTOPOIESIS"
Grk. 'self-making'; "network of production processes in which the function of each component is to participate in the production and transformation of other components."
The way a living system continually renews itself by redefining the boundary between itself and its environment. From the Greek term for "self-production." Another way of putting this is that an organization's identity is defined by its relationship with the outside world. For example, a business might realize that it needs to grow in a certain direction in order to remain viable. From Chilean biologists Maturana and Varela.
self-perpetuation through metabolization, involving consumption of energy and discard of waste (from Greek self [auto] and making [poiein, as in "poetry"]), active maintenance against natural degradation
A process whereby a system constitutes and maintains its own organization
is a process whereby a system produces its own organization and maintains and constitutes itself in a space. E.g., a biological cell, a living organism and to some extend a corporation and a society as a whole.