EuroEconomica, Vol 36, No 2 (2017)

Abstract

Autopoiesis is an concept initially developed, forty years ago, by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Valera, to explain the behavior of biological systems and has enjoyed great popularity among international scientific community. The concept has been extended to the areas of the social sciences, including economics, law, political and other domains. The paper investigate the application of the autopoiesis social systems theory on the economic systems in a critical approach. The study delimits the theoretical framework of autopoietic systems and presents a critical review of the  autopoietic social systems theory, based on the recent researches.  We find that communication and organization are critical for the autopoietic systems and we consider that  the main criteria that allow for the economies of the Baltic States to be considered as autopoietic systems can be available for any economy. We consider that the contribution of this paper will enable to start a debate about autopoietic theory aplications in economic discipline and to serve as an introduction for future discoveries and better understanding of economy