Infrastructure Is What Makes Daily Life Possible: Why Are We Still Defining It Like It’s 1950?
Infrastructure is what makes daily life possible. It’s time to redefine it beyond roads and bridges to broadband, childcare, clean energy, and AI.
September Is Infrastructure Month
In the early 2000s, I worked for the City of Keene as a minute taker. It was a part-time job that kept me plugged into the goings-on in my little corner of the world, and I loved it. Every September, the city highlighted its infrastructure projects.
The Public Works Director had a phrase for it: “roads and commodes.”
That phrase stuck with me because it captured something simple: infrastructure is the foundation of daily life.
The Old Definition of Infrastructure
When most people hear “infrastructure,” they think of highways, bridges, and water treatment plants. But the term is bigger than that.
Merriam-Webster defines infrastructure as:
“The system of public works of a country, state, or region. Also: the resources (such as personnel, buildings, or equipment) required for an activity.”
At its core, infrastructure is public and necessary. It is the structures, systems, and resources that make other activities possible.
Expanding the Definition
We saw the definition stretched a few years ago when the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed. Some argued that things like childcare didn’t belong under the term.
If the purpose of infrastructure is to make work and daily life possible, then how is childcare not essential? Without it, working families can’t fully participate in the economy.
The same is true for healthcare access, broadband in rural communities, and clean energy. Infrastructure isn’t static. As activity in a society changes, infrastructure has to evolve with the needs of society.
The Post-Truth Era Problem
Here’s the harder truth: we are living in a post-truth era.
No two people receive the same information in the same way.
Media can’t be trusted at face value; everything must be filtered through our own critical thinking.
Even the concept of infrastructure, something as basic as the roads we drive on, has been politicized.
We no longer share common ground about what’s required for society to function.
Why September Matters
That’s why Infrastructure Month is worth reclaiming. It’s a reminder that infrastructure is not abstract. It’s shared, it’s public, and it’s what allows us to move forward together.
I often say: what got us here won’t take us where we want to go. (A great book title too—What Got You Here Won’t Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith.)
We have to adapt and pivot to meet the moment we’re in, not the one we hoped for.
What Infrastructure Must Mean Today
This September, let’s expand our understanding of infrastructure beyond the obvious. Yes, it’s still roads and commodes.
But it’s also:
Broadband for rural communities
Reliable childcare for working families
Healthcare access and clean energy
Resilient systems that can withstand storms, outages, and shocks
Infrastructure isn’t just concrete and cables. It’s the digital backbone that connects us, the social systems that support us, and the safeguards that protect us.
Tomorrow, it must also mean:
Social platforms that build business without surveillance
AI that is safe, transparent, and trained in ways that don’t amplify human bias
Building Parallel Infrastructure
If infrastructure is what makes daily life possible, then we need to keep redefining it for the world we’re living in, not the one we left behind.
That’s the work of Parallel Infrastructure:
Building new systems beside the broken ones
Refusing to wait for permission
Refusing to rely on old structures designed for extraction, not equity
Parallel Infrastructure is how we create the foundation for what comes next.
Because the truth is, what got us here won’t get us there.
And I refuse to build the future on yesterday’s foundation.
Q: What is the basic definition of infrastructure?
A: Infrastructure is the foundation that makes daily life possible. It includes public systems like roads, bridges, utilities, and broadband—as well as resources like childcare, healthcare, and digital networks that support economic and social activity.
Q: Why does infrastructure matter today?
A: Because society depends on it. Without reliable infrastructure—transportation, energy, internet, healthcare, or childcare—families, businesses, and communities can’t fully function or grow.
Q: What does “parallel infrastructure” mean?
A: Parallel infrastructure is building new systems beside the broken ones. Instead of waiting for old institutions to fix themselves, we create resilient alternatives—like ethical AI, rural broadband, and platforms that serve people rather than exploit them.
Q: How is infrastructure changing in the 21st century?
A: Traditional infrastructure like roads and utilities is still essential, but today’s definition must also include digital systems, childcare, healthcare, clean energy, and safe AI. These are the foundations of modern life and work.
Hi, I’m Sundee. I write at the edge where Gen X women and the world collide.
Sometimes it’s scripted. Sometimes it’s a wild tangent. But every word, every build, every rebellion is about the same thing—claiming a life they told us we couldn’t have.
On Time. On Purpose. On My Own Terms.