CONSUMER MANUFACTURE - SPORT & HOBBY

1. Food Gathering       Quite a lot of free time - filled mainly by
   --------------       ritualistic activities. Some require work
2. Agriculture          of others - art
   -----------

3. Simple Technology    Hunting for rulers. Competitive games
   -----------------    associated with warfare. Board games arise,
                        some with high standard of craftsmanship.
                        Reduction in Leisure time for others 

4. City State           Regular competitive sports: mainly racing &
   ----------           throwing

5. Empire (Roman)       Sport as spectator entertainment - 
   --------------       amphitheatre - betting on outcomes.  Bread 
                        & Circus at Rome.  Baths as communal sports 
			& social

---------------------------------------------------------------------

6. Medieval (Europe)   The chase - for rulers & rich -  rest had 
   -----------------   little Leisure time

7. Industrial
   Revolution           Ball & Board games develop
   ----------

8. Consumer Society     Spectator sports begin,  grew with mass 
   ----------------     markets.  Materials technology aid a variety 
                        of ball games, requiring manufactured items.
9. Mass Production      Mass participative sports.  Betting on 
   Society              outcomes.
   ---------------      
			Increased range of specialist interests.
                        Almost anything can become a hobby - 
                        collecting old things,  to dabbling in the 
                        latest technology.  A "society" forms round
                        each hobby

                        Towards end,  mass spectator sports declines

                        Betting on outcome of sports grows,  into
                        gambling - where games are created to create
                        outcomes for bets

There may be a Constant Trend of increasing activity of physical and intellectual pursuits, although it has not been the only factor operating. In most societies, children up to about 12 spend most of their time playing. In societies whose people have a reasonable amount of Leisure time (broadly the earliest and the latest, see Leisure & Surplus Wealth) it may be that this childhood activity gets carried on into adulthood.

In other societies where only the ruling group can be said to have much free time what can be recognised as sport tends to have martial connections where the rulers are warriors; in the fewer cases where rulers are priests intellectual activities can be identified.

As societies approach the advanced state (say around Levels 5 & 7) two things occur:

• the common people get more free time, and along with the mass markets which develop are participative and spectator sports

• there is a growth of learning and knowledge, and intellectual pass times become possible (from Knowledge & Education, and Media)

In addition, Maslov's needs will cause impacts (see Leisure & Surplus Wealth). Esteem needs can be met from competitive sports (and maybe some Self-Actualisation) - so the rise in these sports in Level 8 & 9 is to be expected.

Intellectual activities will clearly be motivated by Self-Actualisation - and thus to be expected among the wealthy of late Level 4 & 6 Societies - but to grow in importance as more people are affected by it in Level 9, when the rise of the Hobby is seen. Sports and Hobbies also afford a means of associating with others - satisfying lower level Maslov needs especially among single people.

There is a Constant Trend of Betting, which grows into Gambling. This is dealt with in the Betting & Gambling Sector of the Communications Area.

The increasing emphasis on Self-Actualisation is likely to reduce the passive spectator sports, in favour of Hobbies with an intellectual content (already observed in the History). But the change of emphasis may be slow, and appear as a growth of specialist hobbies, hobby education, with increasing emphasis on association with others. This is likely to combine with the travel need (from Personal Travel) to develop such things as Study Tours and Hobby Conferences.

The need to associate with others is likely to be a factor encouraging Sport & Hobby activities - especial among certain groups - the young, and those undergoing divorce (which is likely to be an important group - from Courtship & Marriage)

Another activity is seen as being important in the future - the protest group (from Government). Increasingly issues will be resolved or action obtained, not so much through the ballot box, but through formation of local and national pressure groups. These will serve the same ends as hobbies.

The content of hobbies will probably be on a similar pattern to the past, but there will be more of them. Some of the extra hobbies will involve the latest technology, especially where it impinges on home life, e.g.:

• activities around the new communications media (from Media), giving increased emphasis on home TV film making

• the computer has been a technological hobby, complete with a large fashion element, and interestingly producing a vast range of printed materials such as magazines. For the most part it does not appear that the home computer has been turned to much practical use. Networking through the Internet is the latest craze. This area is expected to grow, one way or another involving a majority of households

• the Computer-Media is poised to enter the home (or perhaps has done so with the Internet), and one can expect this to spore hobby activities associated with intelligent home machinery

The general feature is a shift from spectator to more participative activities. In Sports this should generate increased demand for sporting equipment, but much of this will remain low technology, and its manufacture has and will migrate out of the Post Industrials to other part of the world. There is not a large MNC (see Abbreviations) involvement, though some MNCs are evolving. Thus quite a lot of this manufacturing activity will be lost completely to the Post Industrials. But opportunities exist to add higher technology to some sports - e.g electronic fishing rods, better materials for balls and bats - which may reverse the migration.

For the most part hobbies do not generate a large manufacturing demand. But new hobbies forming round new technology are likely to have manufacturing requirements which will be Post Industrially based. The advent of the Computer-Media should give a boost to all sorts of working models - borrowing from or quite possibly preceding intelligent home machinery (from Household).

The decline in spectator sports will continue the pressure already apparent on the quasi-businesses who operate them - football clubs etc. Continued survival only seems likely if they make more intensive use of their grounds. Probably many of them will turn these into all purpose sporting facilities, providing such facilities to meet the growing (if slow) consumer sporting demand. Such conversion may not however be easy - for others especially local government authorities often provide extensive sports centres. Although these are extensively used, they tend to be subsidised, which may make competition difficult for a new entrant.

MRCs & LDCs

Sport & Hobby activity will grow in other countries in much the same way as outlined in the History as these societies pass through the appropriate Levels. The existing Sports are likely to be those taken up, and equipment manufacturers are likely to already be in many of the countries concerned (from the New World Trading Patterns ). There is likely of course to be more technological hobbies than was available in the original Level 8 & 9 Societies.

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