Arena Magazine

Arena Magazine is a large format, bimonthly journal of Australian politics and current affairs. Its politics are left-leaning but not tendentious. The focus is on Australia but extends to cover worldwide and regional issues of general interest. The following list summarises the contents of issue number 7 (October/November 1993), which ran to 56 pages not including the cover.

• An editorial on the need for the Left to come to terms with changes in leisure and work.
• Nine pages of "trailers": the ACTU in the 1990s, the threats to Legal Aid, the mysteries of the deficit, the Scottish National Party, the debate over Manning Clark, the latest news from Bougainville and the attempts to stop the use of Chlorine in industrial processes.
• A page of news comment and a page of letters.
• A page of humour (a take-off of the advertising associated with the Telecom/Optus debate).
• Reviews of The Piano, a collection of recent books on economic rationalism, Salo, and Stars of Tagai (a book about religion and resistance in the Torres Strait).

And as major articles (2-3 pages long):

• Giving Ground (a survey of what is involved in the Mabo compromise)
• Coronation Hill Payback (new miner militancy in the aftermath of the 1991 decision)
• The Return of God (the search for 'God' in the modern world)
• End Stage (the need for ritual and symbolism to humanise death, and in particular organ transplantation)
• Experts and Animals (the dehumanisation of the homeless by the media)
• Cultural Criticism and Policy (Stuart Cunningham on responses to Framing Culture)
• New Kids on the Block (recent nuclear proliferation)
• History Starts Today (an account of a visit to an anthropological conference in Moscow)
• Lost in the Translation (life in Moscow as an ex-translator for Progress Publishers)
• Definitely in the Flow (a look at rave culture)

There are some "advertisements" in the issue, but in the form of discreet quarter page ads for publications such as the Berkeley Journal of Sociology and Eureka Street and details of conferences and courses. These totalled about a page and a half over the whole issue.

Overall Arena Magazine gives a very good impression — clean and professional visually and full of high quality writing. I found enough of the articles worth reading that I have just resubscribed for three years (my initial subscription was a gift).

November 1993

Related reviews:

- books about Australia + Australian history
- books about current affairs
- other journals
- books about politics