Abstract
Outlaw motorcycle clubs have elsewhere been used as an extreme case to test the borders and content of what is generally understood as civil society. Based on secondary empirical data sources, the conclusion was reached that - according to existing definitions - archetypical outlaw club is to be considered part of civil society. The present essay is divided into two parts. Firstly, in the main part of the text, three frames of interpretation found in the literature on outlaw biking are refined and presented. The shift of frames are used as an analytical tool in an attempt to understand dimensions and features of the empirical phenomenon 'outlaw motorcycle clubs' that do not present themselves as easily in one single frame. The first part of the essay is concluded with a section in which it is argued that the diversity among outlaw motorcycle clubs are neglected, and a typology of clubs is proposed. In a second and more tentative part, three highly speculative sections is provided. The first addresses the images created in the first part from the perspective that commitment and different types of relations can be seen as responses to uncertainty. In the second section is a tentative model on how voluntary associations' impact on the level of social capital in society can be understood. Concluding the essay is a brief note on the future of outlaw biking. At the end, a short list of the major sources on outlaw biking used for this essay will be found.