Regolare con artefatti

Regulation through artifacts. When we think about artifacts, we usually consider objects such as, for example, a nutcracker, a screwdriver, a bicycle, a table, a fountain pen, a toothbrush, a food mixer; that is, material objects designed and constructed to perform a ‘technical functiom’. However, there are also artifacts with which we normatively regulate behaviors. Imagine, for example, driving a car along an urban road. We would constantly encounter road signs, traffic lights, roundabouts. We propose to call this specific type of artifacts with normative intent ‘de-ontic artifacts’. This article aims to investigate this normative phenomenon that is so widespread in our daily reality, but so often forgotten by scholars of norms and normativity