Topic

“Informal sports and exercise spaces: opportunities and challenges”

March 13, 2026, Erlangen
Annual conference of the dvs commission “Sport and Space”

 

People move in space. Although organized sport plays a central role, informal exercise activities in public spaces are becoming increasingly differentiated and offer new opportunities for social participation, encounters, health promotion, experiencing nature and cultural development. Informal sports and exercise spaces are characterized by great diversity: These include public parks and squares, lakes, mountains and forests, playgrounds, publicly accessible sports facilities, urban open spaces such as parking lots or schoolyards, as well as many other places that are used informally or repurposed for sport or exercise activities. These spaces are often easily accessible, can be used in a variety of ways and play an important role in the everyday physical activity biography and education of all age groups – especially children, teenagers and young adults.In order to enable people with special needs, e.g. people with physical or sensory impairments such as wheelchair users or people with visual impairments, to participate equally in activities in these spaces, these places must meet specific requirements that

In addition, informal sports and exercise spaces are not only places for sports activities in the classic sense, but also for diverse forms of active mobility and everyday exercise, which are practiced on foot, by bicycle, inline skates, a scooter, wheelchair or numerous other means of transportation.

The scientific examination of these topics is just as diverse as the spaces themselves and can be carried out using different methodological approaches – from ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews to quantitative intervention studies or analyses of digitally available geoinformation systems. An interdisciplinary approach opens up new perspectives on the significance of space for physical activity and sport as well as on the design of exercise-friendly environments.

 

The 17th annual conference of the dvs commission “Sport and Space” will focus on the following topics, which can be supplemented by other related topics:

 

  • Use and appropriation of informal exercise spaces by different age and population groups,
  • Potentials and limits of informal exercise spaces for physical activity, social participation and integration,
  • urban and spatial planning in the field of tension between promoting physical activity and land use conflicts,
  • Methodological approaches to researching informal sport and exercise practices and
    Design,
  • equipment and management of informal exercise locations
  • Informal educationto be given greater consideration in planning,
  • design and research in informal spaces Encounters with nature in informal (exercise) spaces and options for education for sustainable development.