Maaltamuutto ja yhteiskunnan rakennemuutos. Vaikutukset liikuntaan ja urheiluun Turussa 1960-luvulla

Authors

• Jan Westerberg Turun yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37449/ennenjanyt.146797

Keywords:

maaltamuutto, hyvinvointivaltio, liikunta, urheilu, kriisinkestävyys, resilienssi

Abstract

Rural flight is a long-term structural societal change that has been strongly shaping Finnish society in the decades succeeding World War II. Since the 1950s, the agricultural society began to undergo a rapid industrialisation process, which caused particularly intense internal migration in the country. This rural flight and structural change also had diverse impacts on physical activity and sports. This article examines these impacts in Turku in the 1960s, The article reveals observations of sports administration, the central organisation for sports and physical activity as well as sports clubs on societal phenomena and the impacts of the phenomena on sports and exercise. The construction of the welfare state and the rearrangement of Finland’s population into the country’s growth centres changed the relationship between physical activity, sports and politics. This change also accelerated the segregation between competitive sports and exercise for fitness and rocked the operations of sports clubs; the range of sports became broader and there was a gradual shift from general clubs with multiple sports to clubs specialised in a single sport. While the Turku of the 1960s was perceived as a city for education and culture rather than one known for sports, internal migration raised Turku’s profile in sports in particular. Residents who had moved to the city from rural areas aimed at a new social adherence through the means of sports and physical activity. The increase in exercise for fitness, trends in organisational politics and the value placed on international success in sports were among the key themes of the 1960s through which sports and physical activity in Finland examined its identity and motives.