Citizenship and the social fringe: the significance of marginal and alternative networks and groups
David E. Sprigg

Contact Email:   david.spriggbendigoweb.com

This paper presents evidence on social fringe collectives as being important ‘mooring points’ for people dislocated by circumstances of marginalisation or alternativeness from mainstream, providing symbolic opportunities to their citizenry experience. The recent PhD qualitative investigation behind this analysis involved 16 sample collectives represented by 40 people across Victoria who had consciously bonded with others in similar circumstances to themselves. With national and other tiers of governments struggling to balance economic wellbeing with social wellbeing, the results lend a greater understanding of the needs and aspirations of those who in many ways have become increasingly sidelined by the current direction in nation state building and maintenance. On the one hand there are elements of homelessness, job precariousness, cultural-based isolation and other forms of marginality that bear witness to fault lines within the social framework. On the other, there are alternative ‘life world’ extensions by people digressing from the current main order through mediums such as intentional communities, ‘New Age’ spirituality, and pro-active environmentalism. This paper contributes to the debate insisting that for Australia to accommodate social consciousness beyond disposable materialism within an ever-increasing web of globalisation, it needs to review substantially ideas of ‘citizenship’ and ‘governance’.

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Sprigg_109.pdf

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