Moylan (director, Ralahine Centre for Utopian Studies, U. of Limerick, Ireland) and Baccolini (English, U. of Bologna at Forlí, Italy) present papers by 12 international scholars in utopian studies who address how they approach the study of the objects and practices of utopianism, both literary and experiential, and how those utopianism has shaped their intellectual work and research perspectives. Influenced by "feminist, Marxist, ethnographic, and post-structuralist theories on the standpoint or positionality of research and the impact of that standpoint on the objects and practices of study (and vice versa)," but otherwise diverse in theoretical and disciplinary perspectives, the papers address such topics as utopia and method in the theoretical work of H.G. Wells, utopian engagement with canonical political theory, reader responses to Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, "critical nostalgia" in contemporary literary and filmic dystopias, the link between artistic creation and political activism in science fiction and the World Social Forum, and the concept of community in the World Conference Against Racism. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)