How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World

Recommended by Chelcie Juliet Rowell, associate head of digital collections discovery at Harvard Library

Since seeing Deb Chachra in conversation with Sara Hendren at Harvard Book Store, I haven’t stopped talking about this book with anyone willing to listen! Chachra trains your eye to see the largely invisible infrastructure that underlies our everyday lives, and since she lives in Cambridge many of the book’s examples are set in the Boston area. She emphasizes how the design of infrastructural systems often negatively impacts the most vulnerable members of our society. Most importantly, she makes clear that another world is possible — we can design equitable infrastructure, for ourselves and for the generations to come.