THE ETHICAL IMPERATIVE: A Commentary on Karen Bakker's Privatizing Water

The virtuosity of Karen Bakker's book, Privatizing Water, lies in its depth of understanding and methodical assessment of water provision, its refusal to lapse into the easy embrace of entrenched dichotomies, and its relentless commitment to asking how we can find solutions to urban water crises that are workable and just. Bakker strives to extend this notion of justice to both the human and non‐human realms. Whether she succeeds is moot, because ‘ecological rights', as Bakker terms them, ultimately remain firmly bound to the anthropocentric: the future possibility of ‘human' and ‘community' rights.