Planning for sport : The perception and handling of sport in urban planning in Sweden

This presentation deals with the perception of sport and its role and place in urban planning in Sweden with basis in a research project carried out 2013-2015. The main research questions are: • How are sport (as in organised sport) and sport issues being handled in the urban planning? • How is sport viewed and defined in urban planning? Several types of material and methods are being used, for instance planning and legal documents, interviews and focus groups. The starting point of this project is on the one hand the changing conditions for planning including increased focus on densification and infill strategies as well as new solutions for integration of different functions. And, on the other hand it is the changing conditions for the sports movement and how sport is carried out. This includes a decreased interest in organised sport activities, increased interest in flexible, individual and self-organised activities as well as activities provided by commercial actors, the rise of ‘new’ activities like parkour and lifestyle sports and a growing activity segregation. A common feature of these activities is a need for other (urban) environments than ordinary sports facilities. This project analyses sport in urban development and planning, using research results and examples mainly from Malmo and Stockholm. The main results could be summarised as follows: • Changing definition/perception of sport among planners. • Changing focus in urban planning. • Health, recreation, physical activity, self-organised sport (and sport as part of the experience economy) are gaining support in urban planning, while more traditional sport activities and facilities are not. ”Well, it is hard to find space for a football pitch”. • A growing need for demand for coordination of different types of leisure and sport activities and cooperation between different actors and sectors