Finnish sports club as a mirror of society

Abstract

Finnish society has undergone fundamental shifts during the last few decades, becoming a more urbanized, pluralistic, individualized and market-driven competitive society in a short period of time. During the same time, the population has aged and the social distribution of work has increased. This article analyses how Finnish sports clubs have changed since 1985 and how those changes have subsequently informed sport policy. Data for this research were collected in three tranches covering a 20-year period: the first in 1986 (n = 835), the second in 1996 (n = 495) and the third in 2006 (n = 550). Results of the data analysis show that some of the broader societal changes are clearly paralleled by changes in sports clubs, such as ageing, social differentiation, urbanization, higher levels of education and other cultural changes. Problems have concerned human resources: the number of voluntary workers and their activity and/or commitment. Along with the higher level of demand and the wider distribution of work, the need for voluntary workers has also increased. Finnish sport policy has begun to follow the idea of evidence-based management, and the government has reacted to the challenges for sports clubs by creating a pilot project in which a group of clubs are supported directly by governmental subsidies.

Keywords:

• sports club
• change
• sport policy
• sport organizations
• volunteers

Notes

1. The public sector, especially municipalities, has the main responsibility on sports facilities, whereas nongovernmental sport organizations take care of the activities.

2. The whole questionnaire is available from the author.

3. At that time, there were four major sport organizations in Finland, and the Finnish Track Association was included to ensure the representation of the sport for all oriented clubs.

4. In Finland, an association should be officially registered to the Register of Associations if it wants to have an official status.