In a new study, the Zukunftsinstitut (Future Institute) has investigated the significance that sport and physical activity will have in our society in the future – with surprising results. Instead of the much-lamented, increasing lack of exercise and stereotypical couch potatoes, our society has never been as interested in sport and physical activity as it is today. However, according to the findings of authors Thomas Huber, Anja Kirig and Verena Muntschick, we will have a different understanding of ‘sport’ in the future. The focus on records, competition and performance will be increasingly replaced by a desire to bring a new sense of vitality into everyday life. The decisive factor for 21st century sports clubs is that it is not about providing the right or wrong sport, or the right or wrong amount of exercise, but providing people with access to all aspects of the world of sport with regard for their own particular situations and individual needs. One thing is especially clear in the study: specifically, the areas in which our society is struggling with a lack of exercise. Data, statistics, interviews and expert discussions show that, above all, people’s working lives are keeping them – unwillingly – away from sport. While the young, as well as an ever-increasing number of older people, have a high physical activity index, rigid work structures are forcing people into physical laziness between their education and retirement. According to the researchers, the solution to this problem does not lie in expanding traditional company sports programmes, but in making both work culture and sports culture more flexible.

Sportivity– The Future of Sport

Thomas Huber, Anja Kirig, Verena Muntschick

Zukunftsinstitut GmbH, May 2014

128 pages, German

ISBN: 978-3-938284-85-8

EUR 190.00 plus 7 % VAT.

[ www.zukunftsinstitut.de]