How Infrastructure Works

Audiobook

Langue : English

Publié par Penguin Audio.

Audible ASIN:: B0BVNLX4HT

(2 critiques)

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 listeners 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 listeners 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.

2 editions

Fionnáin reviewed How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra

A critical reflection on infrastructure

4 étoiles

Deb Chachra's How Infrastructure Works considers infrastructure like water, electricity and internet from many angles, taking a critical feminist approach to services often rendered invisible to us unless they stop working. Beginning from a perspective of infrastructure as a social good and a care role, Chachra introduces an interesting angle that draws from her work as an engineer and her upbringing in Canada as the daughter of Indian immigrants.

Entangled within this are anecdotes about how infrastructures were built, and how they are often socially maintained. The perspective reads almost like social philosophy that takes a well considered perspective pushing against accepted political norms, and it is great for this. The conclusion and some of the chapters drag out a little in the writing, but that doesn't take much from the magnificent argumentation.

loppear reviewed How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra

the collective agency of infrastructure

4 étoiles

Readable tour through infrastructure's reflections of our collective cultures, in its histories, dependence on social pasts and futures, and the agency it gives us individually and en masse to reduce labor and lessen daily focus on basic needs. Maintenance and the shifting baselines of climate bring our attention now to the need and opportunity to redesign infrastructure to address a larger collective future.

Sujets

Environmental policy
Civil engineering

Sujets

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