Articles by: Scott Robinson

Author Biography:

Scott Robinson is a writer and academic with work published in Overland, Arena, Memo Review, Index Journal, Artlink, Artshub and elsewhere. He is a former editor of demos journal and associate editor of Philosophy, Politics, Critique. His website is found here.

The Disenchanted Games

Arena Quarterly no.25

Scott Robinson

Apr 2026

The flaws of sports with no drug-testing are clear to many. What are its advocates missing? What is the meaning of sport for us?

Are You Experience?

Arena Quarterly no. 24

Scott Robinson

Dec 2025

In the proliferating genre of obituaries for experience and the self in the digital age, one is inclined to wonder whether we are, at this stage, crying wolf—so that when experience is really gone, we will not be able to tell.

The Great Fire Sale of the Future

Arena Quarterly no. 21

Scott Robinson

Mar 2025

The inversion of public value into private value has created a spillway, pouring public money into private hands through derisking, bailouts and tax expenditure.

Terra Nullius, Framed?

Arena Quarterly no. 19

Scott Robinson

Sep 2024

Poetry, law, the sins of nationhood and the extradition of the past: From Barro/en Fields to Settler Colonial Theory.

On Paper: The Fate of Handwriting Education

Arena Online

Scott Robinson

9 Aug 2024

Our wish for education to constantly improve leads to fatal attempts to produce the new by force, leaving us tripping over the present in our attempt to claim our relevance in the future.

Degrowth and the Technocratic turn?

Arena Quarterly no. 17

Scott Robinson

Mar 2024

Despite its claim to de-naturalise economic growth, environmentalism’s reliance on naturalist metaphors obscures a technocratic thread, which risks obviating its stated political commitments to democracy.

Damned Rivers: Chronicling the Murray-Darling Basin Region

Arena Online

Scott Robinson

13 Mar 2024

The whole frame of the region as a Basin system may need to dissolve; it has been too caught in the lingering perception that the Murray is a ‘purposeful’ river, a gathering force that can be harnessed for the nation and capital.

Depreciating the Real: The Never-Ending Disappointment of AI

Arena Online

Scott Robinson

14 Dec 2023

In this world of depersonalised narcissism, shaped by a uniform corporate directive and the imperative of comfort, convenience and consumption, it would be quite sensible to lose trust in reality.

Play Half-Earth: Planning Fantasies and Eco-Politics

Arena Online

Scott Robinson

9 Nov 2023

The game simulates a postrevolutionary future in which a planetary sovereign has emerged, and lo and behold, YOU sit at the head of a planning console that governs the next sixty years via successive five-year plans.

Sold Out: The United Australia Party’s Nihilistic Patrician Populism

Arena Online

Scott Robinson

7 Apr 2022

The reality recognised by the UAP, its candidates, and any genuine supporters seems to be that in an intensely competitive world, we would do well to align ourselves under the protection of a patrician.