Arena Journal concerns itself with the possibilities for a renewed critical practice in an era of rapid transformation. The intensification of globalisation means much more than just a change in politics of economics (although these remain vital questions), but cuts deep into every aspect of our being. Previously taken-for-granted elements in social life, even the nature of the social itself have become rapidly destabilised as every institution and cultural setting is potentially drawn into the framework of commodity circulation, and the social is increasingly constituted through the media and the image.
In what ways is it possible to speak of the social, the 'left', or even something like the 'common good' within this context? While the sense of a given 'self' and of a firm social reality appear to have given way to a more fluid and open sense of the experience and possibility, this shift in sensibility is yet to be adequately theorised.
If contemporary approaches are more able to envisage the possibilities within this transformation, they are as yet unable to adequately state how a comprehensive social ethics might be sustained. It is at this juncture that Arena Journal hopes to locate itself, encouraging contributions that are both able to theorise the radical possibilities made available through the transformation in contemporary social life, but also reflect upon the limits of this transformation in terms of its ability to foster more ethical and co-operative forms of social being.
Arena Journal hopes to encourage discussion around key aspects of this transformation: in particular the changing nature of the economy; the structure and experience of the self; the re-constitution of class politics, state structures, and modes of artistic expression, and the significance of feminist, ecological and other social movements. While remaining open to a variety of approaches, Arena Journal wishes to maintain a strong focus upon how an ethic of social life might be renewed. In doing this, we hope to go beyond a mere assertion of the need for such an ethic, and more importantly, try to theorise the conditions whereby it might best be able to unfold.
Arena Journal welcomes unsolicited manuscripts. We request that they be submitted in triplicate, double-spaced in both hard copy and on disc, preferably Word 5 for Macintosh or formatted as rich text (.rtf). All articles are refereed. Manuscripts will be acknowledged immediately; allow six months for consideration. Arena Journal will not consider manuscripts already under review by any other journal.
1. In general, we follow the Australian Government Publishing Service Style Manual (latest edition) on questions covered in "Part One" of that manual: capitals, italics, punctuation etc.
2. We use Oxford first spellings (consult the Australian COD where possible). In particular, note the use of 'z': e.g. organization; and 'our' rather than 'or': e.g. Labour, honour.
3. Referencing: Arena Journal uses a footnoting system. All textual notes and references are to be integrated sequentially into the footnote system.
Order of bibliographical details for books (periodicals, in brackets):
- author's initials
- author's surname
- title of publication, essay in collection or book, (title of article)
- name of collection editor and title of collection, if applicable (title of journal)
- volume number or numbers. e.g. vol. 1. no. 4, (vol. and no.)
- edition, if applicable (spring, summer etc.)
- editor, reviser, compiler or translator, if other than author
- place of publication
- publisher
- date of publication
- page number or page numbers, if applicable
N.B. the following peculiarities:
* standardize author's first name to initials
* place of publication appears before publisher's name
* 'ed.', 'eds' appear in brackets
* all these details to be punctuated by commas only
For example
1. L. Althusser, Essays is Self-Criticism, trans. G. Lock, London, New Left Books, 1977.
2. G. C. Spivak, 'Can the Subaltern Speak?', in C. Nelson and L. Grossberg (eds), Theories of Modernity and Postmodernity, London, Sage, 1990.
3. K. Marx, 'Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy' (1859), Selected Works, vol. 1, Moscow, Progress, 1977, pp. 503-11.
4. See A. Bognar, 'The Structure of Social Processes: A Commentary on the Sociology of Norbert Elias', Sociology, vol. 1, no. 3, 1986, pp. 387-9.
Use author's name and short title for second and subsequent references to the same book or article.
The material in Arena Journal is copyright. Permission to reprint in a non-profit manner is obtainable from Arena Publications. Applications from commercial publishers will be considered.
Send manuscript to:
Arena Journal,
PO Box 18,
North Carlton,
Australia, 3054.
journal@arena.org.au