‘I Sometimes Wonder Whether I’m an Outsider’: Negotiating Belonging in Zine Subculture

Abstract

This article considers how people involved in the zine subculture in the UK negotiate a sense of subcultural belonging through their participation at zinefests – radical marketplaces that facilitate the exchange of independently produced, not-for-profit media known as ‘zines’. The primary contention of the article is that contemporary subcultural networks are implicit in producing, via a multiplicity of entrance points, a ‘subcultural subject’ who negotiates both ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ subjectivities at various times. This point is exemplified throughout the article through the exploration of qualitative data collected via interviews and ethnographic work at zinefests between October 2009 and July 2011.