I ask for permission actively to enter this arena of discussion. ... For I am quite sure of the answer: yes, human societies are biological systems. ... any cohesive social institution is an autopoietic system—because it survives, because its methods of survival answer the autopoietic criteria, and because it may well change its entire appearance and its apparent purpose in the process. As examples I list: firms and industries, schools and universities, clinics and hospitals, professional bodies, departments of state and whole countries.