YOUR FORUM FOR PLAY, SPORTS UND LEISURE AREAS
A major-sized sport club with more than 5000 members and located in the Schleswig-Holstein region of Germany, has opened its doors to non-members and created an attractive motoric and exercise course without one cent of subsidy from city funds. This new sport and exercise opportunity is open to all citizens (including non-members) free of charge and was used intensively from day one both by the surrounding residents as well as the children's day nurseries and schools. At the same time, the city authorities were discussing fencing off and a school playground which had been open for public use by local residents since 1959. A contrary situation?
This is not the only example which makes it clear that in the "sport and exercise" field of community politics is undergoing a change. In individual cases we can see how sports clubs are using innovative approaches to become motors providing impetus for sport development planning; and yet as a rule, real control of events still lies in the hands of community authorities. The wishes of the sporting population on the one hand, face a lack of community funds and in some cases dilapidated sports facilities on the other. This puts cities and communities under pressure to become active again in the field of sport and exercise.
Changed social framework conditions
But why should a community bother with sport development and strategic discussion of the future trend of sport and exercise? One reason is the social framework conditions which have an influence on sport. Some key aspects of this topic are discussed here in brief.
On the one hand, communities as well as sports clubs, see themselves confronted with changed sporting behaviour. The major part of sport and exercise activity is carried out individually, without a connection to a club or other institution. A clear town-city difference can be seen here. In rural areas, sport clubs still have a very strong position even though here as well, private sporting activity has taken the overhand. In urban areas individual sporting and exercise activity has clearly taken first place with sport clubs competing far behind commercial offers. The majority of sporting and exercise activities are carried out in public places, parks, other green areas, roads or paths. This is the first indication that the sport authorities are no longer the sole contact point for an improvement in the framework conditions of sport and exercise, but that other expert positions such as parks authorities or city development must also be included. Sport and exercise do not limit themselves by departments or offices. At the same time, sports authorities need to become used to considering public space as a sport and leisure environment, which makes a significant contribution to improved health and well-being of the population.
On the other hand, demographic change is a further important influencing factor because it has a direct effect on the demand for different kinds of sporting activity and therefore, on sport and exercise facilities. Of course, no generally valid statements can be made here as developments are in some cases very heterogeneous throughout the various regions of Germany. Where the number of children, youngsters and young adults is dropping, a tendency towards declining demand for competition-standard sports facilities must be expected. In contrast, smaller facilities for health and rehabilitation sports gain in significance. Prospering regions are seeing themselves confronted in some cases with an increase in demand for (competition standard) sports facilities for school and club sports, and this is usually linked to a lack of and therefore valuable land resources. In both development scenarios it applies however, that public or urban space will gain in importance in future as a sport and exercise area.
New challenges on sport and urban development
The complexity of the political arena "sport and exercise" can be well imagined even without looking more closely at other influencing factors, such as for example, development of sport clubs, the financial state of many towns and communities or topics such as inclusion and integration or cooperation in sport. This complexity is increasing as in the meantime, "sport" also has a great many interfaces to other political areas. Along with land use and school development planning, there are an increasing number of intersections with promotion of community health and community urban development planning. Increasingly, concepts and mission statements are being developed in urban planning, which consider city space as exercise ground and where pedestrians and bicyclists (the Swiss refer to them as "slow traffic") have a recognised position and where leisure-time and green areas are not considered simply from the aspect of landscape gardening, but rather that the original public park character is being returned to the front. Key words such as an "active city" or "cyclist friendly" and scientific concepts such as walkability and walk score dominate today's discussions.
Community sport development planning as part of integrated urban development planning
Organised sport, with its sports clubs, expert, regional and federal associations but also with sport policies at community, regional and state level, must face up to these changes. The demands on sport and exercise have become more varied and challenging, but not every wish is sensible or possible. At least from the planning challenges point of view, "Sport as the world's most important (trivial) pastime" has not applied for a long time and does not recognise the social-political significance of sport and exercise.
Sport development planning approaches
No community, irrespective of size, can survive today without nursery school planning, school development planning, youth help planning, old-age help planning etc. Sport is not an exception. Planning approaches for sport and exercise have changed, however over the years. The guide-value-oriented approach of West Germany's "Golden Plan" in the 1970s in has long been abandoned and a rather behaviour-oriented approach combined with participation processes is now followed. "Significant quality feature of community sport development planning is the departure from goals, action recommendations and concrete measures for sustainable development of sport and exercise satisfying demand in the communities. This is as a rule created through cooperative participation and cooperation processes." (Germany official memo on communal sport development planning)
The quality feature, therefore, is the dialogue and participation-oriented character. Different interested groups such as club sport, schools, nursery schools, colleges and commercial sports providers should be involved just as much as community politics and the community administration. A planning process spanning all sectors, departments and positions is recommended in order to discover from the start, all intersections and interfaces with other expert planning processes.
A cooperative sport development planning is independent from the size of the community as smaller communities are confronted and must deal with the same questions regarding strategic positioning of sport and exercise, requirements for sport and exercise areas or development of sport clubs, as large cities. The only difference here is the scope of the method spectrum which is needed to find answers to the most urgent questions.
Sport and exercise-friendly city
What is it that, in the end, makes a community sport and exercise-friendly? In my opinion there is no one generally valid all-inclusive answer, as every community must decide for itself, which strategic goals are to be followed in its sport and community development. Despite this, I personally consider sufficient and in some cases, high-quality sport and exercise areas to be an elementary component of a sport and exercise-friendly city, supporting the different requirements of sport reality. This means a demand-oriented combination of well-known and standardised sports facilities for school and club sport, sports facilities for competition, amateur and health sport as well as attractive exercise opportunities in public areas – from floodlit running tracks through attractive amateur playing fields for all age groups up to activity-promoting school playgrounds. These are the minimum requirements which need to be fulfilled in my opinion.
Contact:
Dr. Stefan Eckl
Institute for Cooperative Planning and Sport Development
Institit für Kooperative Planung und Sportentwicklung
Fleckenweinberg 13
DE-70192 Stuttgart, Germany
Tel. +49 (0) 711 / 553 79 55
eckl@kooperative-planung.de
Photo: Dr. Stefan Eckl
