Habitat: The Ecopolitical Nation
2012 - Essay
"Ignasi Ribó’s Habitat is an engaging treatise focused upon one of the most pressing questions facing the global ecological movement: what is the appropriate political unit for fostering the social cohesion necessary to respond effectively to the ecological crisis? Should we be hyperlocalists intensely protecting every intimate inch of our everyday life? Green statists pressuring our presidents to bring about a sustainable economy? Or nomadic cosmopolitans, linking together across any and every boundary in an attempt to make a truly global, multi-everything eco-community? [...] Ribó’s combination of classic figures, moral argument, and contemporary politics is a welcome and timely contribution to ecological and political theory." -- Mike Menser, Environmental Philosophy, n. 10(2), Fall 2013.
"Habitat is the sort of work that has fallen out of favour these days—an imaginative prescription for creating the best of all possible worlds. In addition, Ribó manages to propose a sense of community that expands beyond the boundaries of the homo sapiens species without resorting to the mysticism of bioregionalists or Gaia hypothesis adherents." -- Guy Lancaster, Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, December 2014.
"It’s a brisk little book, which raises more questions than I can comfortably address here. I should say at the outset that it’s an entertaining read: if only all academics would wear their heart on their sleeve like Ribó. One certainly gets the impression that the author is in thrall to no academic shibboleths: he says what he thinks. At the same time, Habitat: The Ecopolitical Nation contains several provocative assertions, which form the basis for the present review. It’s a mixed bag, but it’s certainly stimulating." -- Philip Kirby, Environmental Values, n. 24(1), February 2015.