The research programme Finnish Local Government 2004 is a joint programme launched by the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, universities and research centres. It is funded by Finnish municipalities and the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities. The project engages in a systematic and comparable analysis of the development of the municipal sector in 1995-2004. The 47 municipalities participating in the programme are representative of the Finnish local government sector.
The study programme comprises of 14 research modules. For most modules, data are collected through mail surveys. The data may be used for cross-sectional or time series analysis.
The survey focused on the service provision, management and development policies of sports departments of Finnish municipalities. The respondents were heads of sports departments. Similar surveys were carried out in 1996 and 2002.
The respondents were asked what kind of activities and services the sport department provided, what kind of recreational areas and sports facilities and services there were in the municipality, which body organised them, and whether the municipality allocated funds for them. Staff numbers and duties were charted. Use of contracted-out services and decision-making in the sports administration were studied.
Views were probed on the impact of certain bodies (e.g. municipal council, municipal board, service users, sports clubs) on the sports services. The respondents were also asked how important various duties and responsibilities were in their position as the head of the sports department, and what had changed in the sports sector since 1994. State of the sports sector at the time of the survey, and development policies for the future were surveyed.
Background variables included the respondent's gender, year of birth, job title or position, responsibility areas at work, work experience, education, and whether R lived in the municipality where she/he worked.
Two-stage stratified sampling in selecting project municipalities.
The project municipalities were selected separately from those with less than 10000 inhabitants (28 municipalities) and from those with more than 10000 inhabitants (19 municipalities). The selection aimed to be representative within both groups in relation to all municipalities with the same population size. Large municipalities were over-represented because 70 % of the Finnish population lives in large municipalities. Representativeness criteria included regional location, age and education of the population, industry structure, municipal economy parameters, political situation and variables related to municipal policy. The selected municipalities form a small scale model of all Finnish municipalities. The Åland Islands municipalities were excluded because of special features resulting from Åland's autonomy.
The questionnaire was sent to the heads of sports services of the selected municipalities (N=47). 45 municipalities responded.