How Infrastructure Works

320 pages

English language

Published July 7, 2023 by Penguin Publishing Group.

ISBN:: 978-0-593-08659-9

(1 review)

A new way of seeing the essential systems hidden inside our walls, under our streets, and all around us

Infrastructure is a marvel, meeting our basic needs and enabling lives of astounding ease and productivity that would have been unimaginable just a century ago. It is the physical manifestation of our social contract—of our ability to work collectively for the public good—and it consists of the most complex and vast technological systems ever created by humans.

A soaring bridge is an obvious infrastructural feat, but so are the mostly hidden reservoirs, transformers, sewers, cables, and pipes that deliver water, energy, and information to wherever we need it. When these systems work well, they hide in plain sight. Engineer and materials scientist Deb Chachra takes readers on a fascinating tour of these essential utilities, revealing how they work, what it takes to keep them running, just how much we rely on …

A new way of seeing the essential systems hidden inside our walls, under our streets, and all around us

Infrastructure is a marvel, meeting our basic needs and enabling lives of astounding ease and productivity that would have been unimaginable just a century ago. It is the physical manifestation of our social contract—of our ability to work collectively for the public good—and it consists of the most complex and vast technological systems ever created by humans.

A soaring bridge is an obvious infrastructural feat, but so are the mostly hidden reservoirs, transformers, sewers, cables, and pipes that deliver water, energy, and information to wherever we need it. When these systems work well, they hide in plain sight. Engineer and materials scientist Deb Chachra takes readers on a fascinating tour of these essential utilities, revealing how they work, what it takes to keep them running, just how much we rely on them—but also whom they work well for, and who pays the costs.

Across the U.S. and elsewhere, these systems are suffering from systemic neglect and the effects of climate change, becoming unavoidably visible when they break down. Communities that are already marginalized often bear the brunt of these failures. But Chachra maps out a path for transforming and rebuilding our shared infrastructure to be not just functional but also equitable, resilient, and sustainable. The cost of not being able to rely on these systems is unthinkably high. We need to learn how to see them—and fix them, together—before it’s too late.

3 editions

Marek reviewed How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra

@debcha@mastodon.social's book will change your perspective on the world, connect you to roots, and implications, you weren't aware of.

5 stars

I guess at first blush it might sound a bit strange that a book about utilities, roads, and drainage can change your perspective on the world, but Deb Chachra's does just that.

I have both a personal and professional interest in this stuff, but not huge knowledge in the area. I expected lots of cool technical detail, hooks into the fascinating intricacies of water treatment, electricity generation and distribution, transport. All of that is there, but every sentence is embedded in a fabric of social and cultural awareness. The whole point of infrastructure is social, the technicalities are just...well.. the technicalities. It is the bigger picture that Chachra is interested in here. The result is a not so much a disorientation, as a reorientation. It's a recognition of the ways in which the infrastructure that we take for granted every day (that is designed to be taken for granted), gives …

I guess at first blush it might sound a bit strange that a book about utilities, roads, and drainage can change your perspective on the world, but Deb Chachra's does just that.

I have both a personal and professional interest in this stuff, but not huge knowledge in the area. I expected lots of cool technical detail, hooks into the fascinating intricacies of water treatment, electricity generation and distribution, transport. All of that is there, but every sentence is embedded in a fabric of social and cultural awareness. The whole point of infrastructure is social, the technicalities are just...well.. the technicalities. It is the bigger picture that Chachra is interested in here. The result is a not so much a disorientation, as a reorientation. It's a recognition of the ways in which the infrastructure that we take for granted every day (that is designed to be taken for granted), gives us roots that go deep into the earth, and power that reaches right across it.

So often, the built environment, and the systems that provide for basic survival needs are thought to separate us from the natural world. What Chachra shows is, essentially, that that is not possible. We are unavoidably, necessarily connected to the world through these systems. Indeed, there is an ethical demand that we recognise this, and the massive costs that come with it. But also we are connected to one another, family, neighbours, fellow country people, humanity at large, through them - they are literal and figurative foundations of civilisation and community.

The point of this recognition is not to undermine those foundations, but to empower us to be better citizens through them. To take ownership and responsibility of the relationships to the world and to others that these systems provide, and to appreciate how the ways that these systems are designed, built, and maintained, impact on those relationships.

I was excited to read this book because I have some appreciation and interest in this stuff anyway. I have got much more out of it than I expected, and believe that it is a book that would repay readers of many stripes who might not be primed in the same way. Highly recommended.

Two potential chasers for this shot: An obvious one, a light, fun, quick, but insightful graphic introduction to these kinds of systems (in this case, the internet, water, and electricity specifically). bookwyrm.social/book/1083387/s/hidden-systems

A wonderful book that does a similar kind of job in highlighting how measurement and observation of the world around us is something achieved in a necessary web of social and cultural relationships. Measurement as infrastructure for our communication and collaboration about the world in every domain of life. bookwyrm.social/book/604021/s/beyond-measure

Subjects

Environmental policy
Civil engineering

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