Karen Bakker

Bakker analysed water concessions in cities around the world and found a pattern: the promise was investment and efficiency, and the frequent outcome was higher tariffs, disconnections for those who could not pay, and investment concentrated where the network already existed.

Her conclusion is not that public always works better, but that water does not behave like a commodity: it is a natural monopoly, a right and an ecosystem at once. She coined the framing of «commons» against «commodity» to name that third way.