Geographies of science-fiction

Lost in Space : Geographies of Science Fiction edited by Rob Kitchin and James Kneale is a collection of essay on the geography of sci-fi novels and films. Contributors are coming mainly from the field of human geography and literary critic. As described by Kitchin and Kneale:

"the starting point for this book is the belief that science-fiction opens up a space in which authors and readers or viewers can reflect upon the nature of a wide variety of things (...) a privileged site for critical thoughts (...) a foil for thinking about present-day geographies, their construction, reproduction and contingency, and thinking about how we theorize and comprehend a range of concepts such as space, nature, subjectivity and reality. Here SF becomes a useful cognitive space, opening up sites form which to contemplate material and discursive geographies and the production of geographical knowledges and imaginations. (...) The geographies of cyberpunk are therefore 'this world re-placed and dis-located'; like the settings of fantasy they are made realistic through careful exploration which rarely steps far from the plausible"

Why do I blog this? this was a week-end reading, I was actually more interested in the underlying rationale of the book (why paying attention to sci-fi spaces) than the topics analyzed here which often address gender and psychoanalytic perspectives of sci-fi spaces. A corresponding analysis of sci-fi spaces/tools would be very relevant to understand UX issues, projected meanings and potential failures. Or, what about sci-fi representation of space and urban computing? That book reminded me of this french book I've read last year entitled "De New-York à Coruscant" by Alain Musset.

Anyway, I find all this literature interesting to understand (and criticize) the normative futures that are propelled and often perceived at the so-called obligatory spaces we will have (or ought to deserve?).