Arena Journal

Jul 2018

This special issue of Arena Journal addresses the accelerating structural displacement of human participation in contemporary society.

Whither Religion in a World of Compounding Crises?

Arena Journal no. 49/50

Stephen Ames, Ian Barns, Paul James, John Hinkson, Gordon Preece

Jun 2018

Though a significant minority across the world enjoy the gross material benefits of a prodigiously productive global economy, our planet is at the same time beset by escalating system-level crises. Deep economic inequality is intensifying both between and within national polities. Ecological degradation is calling into question the future of the earth as we know […]

"This issue of Arena Journal, as many before it have been, is concerned with both…

Editorial – Issue 47/48. ‘Confronting a New Leviathan’, by Dan Tout

Arena Journal no. 47/48

Dan Tout

Jan 2017

This issue of Arena Journal, as many before it have been, is concerned with both specific and more general processes of transformation and crisis. While, considered together, the contents of this issue paint a bleak picture about the contemporary situation and future prospects, they also point towards more hopeful, if provisional and conditional futures.

"This issue of Arena Journal emerges from a day-long symposium held at the University of…

Introduction – Issue 45/46 ‘Cold War to Hot Planet: Fifty Years of Arena’

Arena Journal no. 45/46

Jan 2016

This issue of Arena Journal emerges from a day-long symposium held at the University of Melbourne in 2013 marking fifty years of publications by the Arena group. The event was composed of diverse presentations, some from among the original editors of the first series of Arena, some by contributors to that first series and others by editors and contributors from more recent times. The day was marked by an unusual vitality as well as recognition…

"The recent wave of revolutions across the Arab world has brought to the surface the…

Making Modernity: From the Mashriq to the Maghreb

Arena Journal no. 43/44

Paul James, Stephen Pascoe, Virginie Rey

Jan 2015

The recent wave of revolutions across the Arab world has brought to the surface the contradictions in popular understandings of the Middle East and North Africa. The place of the region in the global history of modernity has been unsettled yet again...

"Humans now have the capacity to produce synthetic life-forms (since 2010) and to destroy life…

People, Planet and the Anthropocene: Spectators of Our Own Demise?

Arena Journal no. 41/42

Paul James

Jan 2014

Humans now have the capacity to produce synthetic life-forms (since 2010) and to destroy life on this planet as we know it (since 1952). It is only by recognizing this point — that we are now reconstituting the very basis of nature — that adequate acknowledgement of the Anthropocene starts to hit home.

"by Simon Cooper

MOOCs: Disrupting the University or Business as Usual?

Arena Journal no. 39/40

Jan 2013

by Simon Cooper

"Geoff Sharp introduces the Issue "The general thrust of the contributions to this issue of…

Editorial – Issue 39/40

Arena Journal no. 39/40

Jan 2013

Geoff Sharp introduces the Issue "The general thrust of the contributions to this issue of Arena Journal is transformation. These articles suggest that the organisation and conduct of social life is now changing in ways that unsettle the basic assumptions that have underpinned the whole epoch of modernity..."

"From the Deserts of the Maghreb to the Rivers of the Mashriq