The study investigates the history and current trends in municipal sport administration in the changing Finnish society in the years 1919-1994. It proceeds at two levels – it charts the general development of municipal sport administration, and follows the developments in 16 specific municipalities. Based on the changes in the Finnish society, the study is divided into five phases: "Agrarian Finland" (1979-39), War-economy Finland" (1940-49), "Industrial Finland" (1950-69), "Service Finland" (1970-89) and 'Recession Finland" (1990-94). In agrarian Finland almost 80 % of the population lived in the countryside. The rural municipalities did not yet have the economic resources nor the populational or administrative prerequisites for creating municipal sports services. However, at its best, the Finnish countryside was self-sufficient. If the children and young people in the countryside wanted to participate in sports, the sports grounds and other needed facilities were built with voluntar
y work. The first attempts at municipal sport administration took place in the cities and towns. The first sport committee to administrate sports facilities and allocate financial support to sport clubs was set up in Helsinki, in April of 1979, after which also other cities began to establish similar committees. In industrial Finland, municipal sport administration encompassed also the countryside. By the early 1960s, a comprehensive network of sport committees had been established to cover the entire country. At the same time the creation of sport services changed from individual pastime to a system of social services, and
municipalities became the greatest organizers of sport services. The development of the rural areas nevertheless declined during industrialization and urbanization of the country. In spite of the sport committees, the sport administration in rural areas began to regress. The rapidly growing cities, on the other hand, moved ahead and the sport services differentiated. Inequality began to even out in the well-to-do service Finland as a result of the Act on Sport and Physical Education, and the regionally weighted state aid to sport and physical activities. Sport expenditure and the construction of sport facilities rose to an all-time high, and there was an abundance of sport services. At the turn of the 1990s, however this abundance dwindled, as sport administration along with the rest of society, was caught in the turmoil and
tightening of purse strings that took place in recession Finland.
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