The Settings Approach and Significance of Cities for the Promotion of Sport for All and Physical Activity

Abstract

The development of cars and technology in the past 60 years has affected cities and everyday life, the natural environment, the social relationships, and health. This brought to a reaction regarding transports in the 1990s (C. Horn, 2014). As the WHO (World Health Organization) Regional Office for Europe states, a healthy city is an active city (P. Edwards and A. D. Tsouros, 2008). Promoting physical activity is a public concern as it is important for both the environment, current and future generations. Being active regularly is being proved to have an elevated positive impact of physical and mental health (ISCA and Cebr, 2015). Focusing on cities and municipalities is prominent as urbanization is growing. Nowadays, about 50% of the world population lives in urban areas and it has been estimated that this data will reach 68.4% by 2050, which in number means plus 2.5 billion people living in cities (UN, 2018). Given the increase of physical inactivity in urban areas, cities have the main role in the provision of infrastructure and facilities, and programs to promote sport and physical activity. Unfortunately, most of the times, cities have a very restrictive understanding of sport and they only focus on how it is organized or on the competitive part. They don’t know where to start or how to increase participation within their community. What are the municipalities’ needs and expectations? What challenges do they identify and where do they need help?