Infrastructural systems are more than just technical – they are social and political. They are shaped by the sustained relationships of the people who live in the places they connect, and they also form part of that relationship. They can’t easily be valued or assessed like a consumer good, where it’s “worth it” to buy something or not. Deciding to buy a car has little in common with deciding when, where and how to build the roads to drive it on. So infrastructural systems don’t lend themselves to decision-making that focuses solely on the costs or the returns on investment.
An infrastructural network can encode and promote a set of values: everyone should have access to clean water, or electricity is a necessity, or personal mobility is a human right, or a healthy population is important, or broadband access is required to fully participate in civic society, or even endangered fish should be protected. While infrastructural systems can meet basic human needs, providing agency and freedom, the specific form they take depends on cultural norms and expectations; in turn, the systems set and define those norms and expectations.