For twenty years, typical outdoor lifestyle sports like rafting, snowboarding and rock climbing, which used to be exclusively practised in natural environments, are being offered in controlled artificial settings. This process can be described as 'the indoorisation of outdoor sports'. With this development, questions of authenticity arise. Are these new, commercial forms still authentic lifestyle sports? And can we consider the participants in these indoorised lifestyle sports as authentic? There has been a discussion about authenticity in lifestyle sports since its worldwide popularisation and it is worth to reconsider this discussion against the background of new, commercial versions of lifestyle sports. Therefore, in this paper a qualitative analysis is offered about the consumption of a constructed authenticity in a cultural context increasingly characterized by artificialization.
DOCUMENT
Purpose: The authors provide a personal insight into how they see the potential of urban culture as a vehicle for creative placemaking. The purpose of this study is to highlight the opportunities for the tourism industry to embrace this global youth culture now that one of its pillars, breakdance, is on the brink of becoming an Olympic discipline in 2024, thus nudging this youth culture from underground to mainstream. Design/methodology/approach: The authors interviewed two Dutch pioneers in the field of urban culture: Tyrone van der Meer, founder of The Notorious IBE (IBE), an international breaking event, and Angelo Martinus, founder of the urban scene in Eindhoven and initiator of EMOVES, an urban culture and sports event. Findings: The authors illustrate the added value of urban culture to creative placemaking by addressing the initiatives of previously mentioned Dutch pioneers. Their urban culture events on Dutch soil, yearly attract thousands of participants and visitors from the urban scene, covering over 40 nationalities, to the South of The Netherlands. Originality/value: This study provides a glimpse into a global youth culture that is primarily invisible to the tourism industry and a foresight in how the tourism industry and other stakeholders (e.g. policy makers, city marketeers, tourism managers and event organisers) can pick up on this evolving trend. The study is meant as a wake-up call.
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Purpose: Adolescents are insufficiently physically active and spent too much time sitting, which provides a health risk. In the current study the municipality of Amsterdam, secondary schools, experts in urban sports and researchers work together to stimulate healthy exercise behavior of adolescents. The urban sports facilities in the city of Amsterdam are at the center of this project. A variety of urban sports facilities have been realized over the last years. It remains however unknown which adolescents actually use these facilities. When urban space planning and physical education (PE) lessons at school are aligned and adjusted to the needs and preferences of adolescents, adolescents probably feel more competent to use the urban sport facilities surrounding their schools. The goal of this project is twofold: 1) findings working principles for designing urban sports facilities in the urban space surrounding schools 2) identifying elements in secondary school physical education lessons that motivate adolescents to use the urban sports facilities.Methods: This was investigated by applying design thinking methods and co creation sessions with adolescents, PE teachers, school boards, municipality and experts in urban sports.Results: First results indicate that needs, wishes and barriers of adolescents with regard to the use of urban sports facilities are currently insufficiently documented. Moreover, physical education teachers lack a feeling of competence in providing urban sports classes and there is insufficient coordination between schools, the municipality and providers of urban sports. Next steps in the design thinking cycle will be discussed as well as implications for the municipality with regard to planning of urban sports facilities around school, and how to connect physical education programming inside and outside secondary schools.
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