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Norway: The Ambiguity of Sports Clubs and Nonsports Social Functions

In: Functions of Sports Clubs in European Societies

Author

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  • Ørnulf Seippel

    (Nowegian School of Sport Sciences, Department of Sport and Social Sciences)

Abstract

Sports clubs have a central position in Norwegian societies, and research shows that 93% of Norwegian youth have been member of a sports club. The clubs’ main purpose is obviously to provide sports to their members. The sports clubs, public authorities and sports organisations have, however, expectations to the clubs pointing beyond sports: They should enhance public health, they should help social integration, they should be builders of democracy, and they should enable voluntary work. In this chapter, I present facts on the extent to which sports clubs fulfil such functions and discuss why the do and not do so. On the one hand, sports clubs obviously contribute in all these four fields. On the other hand, contributions to these social functions are side effects to their main activity: sports. In many instances, this leaves us with a misfit between declared policy aims and what the clubs actually do to fulfil these social functions. So, even though sports clubs do fulfil important social function besides organising sports, there is clearly a potential for more. At the same time, there is a dilemma where increasing sports clubs nonsports functions might be detrimental to the organisations of sports.

Suggested Citation

  • Ørnulf Seippel, 2020. "Norway: The Ambiguity of Sports Clubs and Nonsports Social Functions," Sports Economics, Management, and Policy, in: Siegfried Nagel & Karsten Elmose-Østerlund & Bjarne Ibsen & Jeroen Scheerder (ed.), Functions of Sports Clubs in European Societies, chapter 0, pages 211-234, Springer.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:semchp:978-3-030-48535-1_9
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-48535-1_9
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