2017, Volume 9, Issue 4
Spatial diversity of the activity of sports clubs in Poland in 2016
Tomasz Michalski1, Tomasz Wiskulski2
1Faculty of Oceanography and Geography, University of Gdansk
2Faculty of Tourism and Recreation, Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport
Author for correspondence: Tomasz Michalski; Faculty of Oceanography and Geography, University of Gdansk; email: tomasz.michalski[at]ug.edu.pl
Full text
Abstract
The article is part of the current trend in publications showing the diversity of Poland at a local level. Its aim is to find regularities in spatial diversity of participation in and the offer of sport and recreation activity by sports clubs in Poland in 2016.
The analysed data come from the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office. Poviat (LAU 1) is the basic research unit. 5 variables were applied: persons practising sport per 1,000 population; the percentage of women among all practising; the percentage of persons under 18 years old among all practising, the number of sports sections per 100 practising; the number of sports coaches and sports instructors conducting sports activities per 100 practising. The following measures and methods were applied: arithmetic mean, coefficient of variation (CV), division into quintiles, PCC, Perkal’s indicator, and k-means cluster analysis.
Spatial diversity was analysed mainly with a view to the influence of two groups of factors arising from historical-cultural determinants and those related to urbanization. In the case of three variables (practising in sports clubs per 1000 population, the percentage of women among all practising in sports clubs, the percentage of people under 18 years old among all practising) there were, in fact, areas with high or low values, but they cannot be linked to the two groups of factors mentioned above. However, in the case of the next two variables (number of sections in sports clubs per 100 practising and the number of coaches and instructors per 100 practising), the impact of the factor associated with urbanization processes is notable.
Unlike many other aspects of human activity – distribution of the activity of sports clubs does not show any underlying spatial regularities and is not related to the former divisions of Poland. Yet, a weak relationship with contemporary processes of urbanization was found.
Key words: sports club, Poland, poviat