Reconsidering Infrastructure as Parallel‐Structure in Functionally Differentiated Society

ABSTRACT This paper reconceptualises infrastructure as parallel‐structure in a functionally differentiated society. Challenging the conventional view of infrastructure as a unifying foundation, it draws on Niklas Luhmann's systems theory to argue that modern society consists of autonomous, operationally closed systems—such as politics, economy, law and science—each structured by distinct binary codes that generate structurally incommensurable realities. Within this framework, the article reconstructs infrastructure's ontological characteristics—installed base, embeddedness in practice and reliance on standards—through a systems‐theoretical lens. Infrastructure cannot therefore be understood as a singular integrative object. Rather, it emerges as a parallel‐structure simultaneously constituted across multiple systemic operations—as political decision, economic calculation, legal procedure, scientific verification. Crucially, infrastructure lacks a unified temporal frame; its lifecycle is system‐contingent, producing temporal misalignments that intensify conflict and volatility. The very conditions enabling coordination—shared standards and institutionalised practices—also reproduce differentiation, ensuring that interoperability generates incommensurability. The Gadeokdo New Airport project in South Korea demonstrates that infrastructural instability and unpredictability are not managerial failures but structural effects of polycontextural differentiation. By reframing infrastructure as parallel‐structure, the study shifts analytical attention from integrative ideals towards diagnosing systemic frictions and the limits of governance in complex societies.