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• Alles im Fluss: Die Lebensadern unserer Gesellschaft [Everything flows: The lifeblood of our society] by Dirk van Laak
• Cornelis Disco (bio)

In this book, Dirk van Laak explores humans' coexistence with infrastructures over the past 200 years. To unfold his vision, he mobilizes stories about a wide variety of past and present infrastructures, stressing their kaleidoscopic and indeed paradoxical nature through time.

The introduction, subtitled: "The main thing, it functions . . ." asserts that infrastructures are in the first place performances. That is to say, nuts and bolts only become infrastructures when a "tendential majority" of a population seizes upon them to perform some critical aspect of their daily lives. So, users matter. Van Laak argues that infrastructures are intensely paradoxical: designed to be under the radar but all too visible when they let us down; intended to liberate us from a multitude of mundane worries but at the same time responsible for augmenting our dependencies and vulnerabilities; designed to connect us but also serving to exclude and separate us. Van Laak takes aim at the dominant welfare-state narrative that infrastructures are invariably productive and progressive, while illuminating what we might call their dark side. In this sense the book is also a critique of modernity, seen as the wholesale incorporation of—especially urban—populations into overarching though largely de-focalized infrastructural systems that can only function thanks to the extensive disciplining (and self-disciplining) of these same populations. Alles im fluss is thus appropriately much more an historical ethnography of infrastructures than a history of infrastructure building or management.

The first section, entitled the "Classic Era of Infrastructures," consists of three chapters detailing the development of infrastructures in the nineteenth century ("Public Works"), the early twentieth century ("Lifeblood of the Community"), and the late twentieth century ("The Measure of Modernity"). These chapters lay out Van Laak's vision of the emergence of modern infrastructure societies over the past 200 years, culminating in societies where now "everything flows." We are taken on a journey: to see the canals of Louis XIV and the English industrial revolution, the telegraph as harbinger of universal peace, the sublime promise of electricity, World War I supply and communication infrastructures, public works in democracies and in left or right dictatorships, nostalgia for the relics of superannuated infrastructures, the fragile complicity of infrastructures in colonial repression and revolt, and a compact history of waste—to name just a few way-stations. Van Laak shows that the past 200 years have marked a qualitative shift from fragmented pre-modern structures of production, waste, and circulation, to societies critically dependent on collectively enacted systems of flows and logistics, i.e. infrastructures. [End Page 1216]

The five chapters in the second section, "Focal Points in Debates on Infrastructure," deal with the organization of infrastructure; symbolic values; and the collapse, life-cycle, and vulnerability of infrastructures, finally turning to the dance between users and managers of infrastructures. Here too, Van Laak draws on a fascinating variety of detailed accounts to make his points about our (increasingly) ambiguous and precarious lives with infrastructures.

The conclusion focuses on our present internet-dominated social orders and beyond. Two developments take pride of place: first, the increasing "interleaving" of infrastructures, especially the digitalization of older ones and their inclusion in global information orders; and second, the mounting ecological and climatic challenges to the continued unbridled expansion of infrastructures. These related developments will shape the infrastructural agenda for the near future.

Van Laak's book is a welcome addition to the considerable body of literature on infrastructural history. The vast majority of works focus on specific infrastructures or historical contexts for infrastructure-building. Though this situatedness has its virtues, Alles im fluss makes a virtue of generalization. It is extravagantly catholic in its sources, drawing examples from a motley variety of infrastructures across a wide range of different times and places (albeit with a bias toward urban, western, and, understandably, German settings). Van Laak thereby encourages us to reflect on the phenomenon of infrastructure as a generic feature of...

审核人：

• Alles im Fluss：Die Lebensadern unserer Gesellschaft [一切流动：我们社会的命脉]作者：Dirk van Laak
• Cornelis Disco（生物）

在本书中，德克·范·拉克（Dirk van Laak）探索了人类在过去200年中与基础设施的共存。为了展现他的远见，他动员了关于过去和现在各种各样基础设施的故事，并强调了它们的千变万化的本质，甚至随着时间的推移自相矛盾。

引言的副标题是：“主要的功能，……。” 断言基础架构首先是性能。就是说，只有当大多数人抓住螺母和螺栓来执行日常生活的某些关键方面时，螺母和螺栓才成为基础设施。因此，用户至关重要。范·拉克（Van Laak）认为，基础设施极具悖论性：被设计为在雷达之下，但当它们使我们失望时，一切都可见。旨在将我们从众多世俗的烦恼中解放出来，但同时又要增加我们的依赖性和脆弱性；旨在与我们建立联系，但也可以排斥和隔离我们。范·拉克（Van Laak）着眼于占主导地位的福利国家，即基础设施始终具有生产力和进步性，同时也阐明了我们所谓的“阴暗面”。从这个意义上说，这本书也是对现代性的批判，因此，Alles im fluss更适合作为基础设施的历史民族志，而不是基础设施建设或管理的历史。

第一部分标题为“基础设施的经典时代”，由三章组成，详细介绍了19世纪（“公共工程”），20世纪初（“社区的生命线”）和20世纪末的基础设施的发展。世纪（“现代性的度量”）。这些章节介绍了范拉克（Van Laak）在过去200年中对现代基础设施社会的兴起的愿景，并最终形成了如今“万事万物”的社会。我们踏上了一段旅程：看到路易十四的运河和英国的工业革命，电报是普世和平的预兆，崇高的电力承诺，第一次世界大战的供应和通讯基础设施，民主国家和左或右的公共工程正确的专政，怀念过时的基础设施遗迹，殖民地镇压和叛乱中基础设施的脆弱共谋以及浪费的紧凑历史（仅举几例）。范·拉克（Van Laak）表明，过去200年标志着从零散的生产，废物和流通的前现代结构向严重依赖集体制定的物流和物流体系（即基础设施）的社会的质变。[第1216页结束]

第二部分的五个章节“基础设施辩论的重点”讨论了基础设施的组织。符号值；基础架构的崩溃，生命周期和脆弱性，最终转向基础架构的用户和管理者之间的共舞。范·拉克（Van Laak）在这里也利用各种引人入胜的详细帐户来说明我们（越来越多）使用基础架构的歧义和不稳定的生活。

结论着重于我们当前以互联网为主导的社会秩序。两项发展引人注目：第一，基础设施的“交织”不断增加，尤其是旧基础设施的数字化及其在全球信息订单中的纳入；第二，不断扩大基础设施的生态和气候挑战日益严峻。这些相关的发展将在不久的将来塑造基础设施的议程。

范·拉克（Van Laak）的书是相当可观的基础设施文学著作的增刊。绝大多数作品着眼于特定的基础设施或基础设施建设的历史背景。尽管这种处境有其优点，但Alles im fluss却具有泛化的优点。它的来源极具天主教色彩，借鉴了不同时间和地点（尽管偏向于城市，西方以及可以理解的德国环境）各种各样基础设施的例子。因此，范拉克（Van Laak）鼓励我们反思基础设施这一现象，这是...