Social Artifact

Social artifact is any product of individuals or groups or of their social behavior.

Artifacts are the objects or products designed and used by people to meet re-occurring needs or to solve problems.

An example of a common social artifact is a document.

The philosopher Marx W. Wartofsky distinguished several types of artifacts:

- primary artifacts, which are used in production (e.g., a hammer, a fork, a lamp, a camera, etc.) - secondary artifacts, which are representations of primary artifacts (e.g., a user manual for a camera) - tertiary artifacts, which are representations of secondary artifacts

See also

Habib, Laurence, and Line Wittek (2007). The portfolio as artefact and actor. Mind, Culture and Activity, Vol. 14, No. 4, ISSN 1074-9039.

Wartofsky, Marx W. (1973). Models: Representation and scientific understanding. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Reidel.