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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Sports Club as a Social Organization in Finland

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The voluntary sports movement began in Finland in the late 1800s concomitantly with the industrialization of the country. Due to the political, ethnic and emancipatory interests the sports movement has particular configurations still valid at present and embodied in the separate national organizations for workers, Finnish-Swedish people and women. The national survey on sports clubs as social organizations was carried out in 1987. The data were collected by mail from the sample of clubs (n 835). The survey was focused on the prime components of the internal system of sports clubs — ideology, membership, program, resources and administration — but also on the interaction between this internal system and external environment of clubs.